
Bmi ,d 3 4 



PRESENTED BY 




BSV. B. OAREADINS, D. D. 



THE 

SANCTIFIED LIFE 




f BY 

REV. B. CARRADINE, D. D., 

4utfor of •• Sanctxfication," "A Journey to Palestine," ■ 
IvOTTERY Exposed, " "Church Entertainments," "Thi 
Bottle," "Secret Societies." ** The Second Bless- 
ing in Symbol," "The Better Way," "Thb 
Old Man," "Pastoral Sketches and 
Revival Sermons." 



Office of Tee Revivalist, Cincinnati, <X 



Copyrighted, 1897, M. W. Ivnapp. 



.CSV 



y 



. Aui 
<F*rua) 



NOV 22 i9!S 



CONTENTS 



* CHAPTER L Pagb. 
Different Theories in Regard to Sanctification 
or Heart Purity 5 

CHAPTER IL 
Thf True Theory 17 

CHAPTER III. 
The Blessing is Obtainable Now.- 29 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Blessing May be Lost 40 

CHAPTER V. 
Tsn Blessing Can be Recovered 54 

CHAPTER VL 
How to Keep The Blessing 64 

CHAPTER VH. 
Some Features of The Sanctified Life 77 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Loneliness of The Life 89 

CHAPTER IX. 
Prayer and Reading .. „ 106 

CHAPTER X. 
Witnessing .... m 119 

CHAPTER XI. 

WOCrD \\ OK..K.3 »••«•••»•«•••»• ... ... ... ... *«..«;> ......... ......... ...... ......... *39 

a 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 
Fasting, Tithes, and Dress 152 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Moods, Affinities, and Impressions 167 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Doubts, Pears, and Fret 183 

CHAPTER XV. 

COME-OUT-ISM AND PUT-OUT-ISM..................... 200 

CHAPTER XVX 
Secret Societies 220 

CHAPTER XVH. 

Sidetracks ,. 256 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Great Remedy.... .......... — *•* 267 



THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 



CHAPTER I. 

DIFFERENT THEORIES IN REGARD TO SANCTIFICATION, 
OR HEART PURITY. 

THE Saviour in His Sermon on the Mount said : 
M Blessed are the pure in heart." Can any one 
believe that Christ would bless a class of people who 
do not or can not exist? If men so insist, then do 
they make the Saviour utter an absurdity. 

Regeneration implanted spiritual life in the soul, 
cleansed the nature from personal sin and guilt, gave 
a title to Heaven and communicated power over the 
world, the flesh and the devil ; but neither the Bible or 
experience say it made us holy. It is a pity that some 
people do not study the meaning of the word regener- 
ate. The trouble to-day is that it is loaded down with 
definitions that do not belong to the word ; for some 
have made it mean anything and everything in order 
to leave no room for a second work of grace. 

It is well to remember that a new heart is one 
thing, and a pure heart another. They are no* 

5 



* THB SANCTIFIED UFB. 

eynony mous. A man can have a new heart which loves 
God, and yet not possess a pure heart from which self, 
man-fear, love of praise and other like things are 
banished. The new heart comes with regeneration, 
the pure heart by the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and 
of fire. We are born unto one and baptized into the 
other. Born of water and the Spirit, but baptized 
with the Holy Ghost and with fire. 

All churches agree that heart purity or sanctifi- 
cation is to be possessed. They only differ as to the 
time in which it may be obtained, and as to the agency 
or power through which it is effected. But this is a 
very great difference, and of gravest moment to the 
soul seeking to be holy. We call attention to some 
of these views. 

One is the Purgatorial Theory. This, as is well 
known, is held by the Roman Catholic Church. They 
believe in pardon here in time, but that purification 
is obtained by flames burning in a kind of middle 
world, which they call Purgatory. The objection 
to this theory is that the Bible does not teach it, and 
there are some of us who want a "thus saith the 
Lord" on so vital a matter. An additional objection 
to this teaching is that it ascribes to a material flame 
what should be accomplished by the blood of Jesus 
Christ. There goes up a protest from the heart as we 
see the crown which belongs to the Son of God placed 
upon a bit of fire, and a marvelous work of grace 



DIFFERENT THEORIES. 7 

which is attributed by the Bible to Him, ascribed 
to a flame, which we know to be an unintelligent and 
nnspiritual agency. 

A second opinion held is the Death Theory. There 
are many who believe and insist that purity or holiness 
can only come to the soul in the moment of death. 
The serious objection to this view is that there is 
nothing in the Bible to give foundation for such 
a teaching. Moreover this idea of death purification 
springs from the old false notion that sin is in 
matter. This position has long ago been made un- 
tenable. The absurdity of saying that sin is in a 
non-intelligent substance must at once strike the 
reader. So we conclude that sin is not to be found in 
wood, leather, cloth, skin, bone, muscle, or any other 
form of matter. It must and can only exist in spirit. 
The view, therefore, that located sin in the material 
nature of man, failed to see that the body was simply 
an unconscious instrument of the soul within ; and 
supposing that the word "flesh" in the Bible meant 
the body, they fell upon the conclusion that the only 
hope of deliverance was by laying down the body in 
the grave. 

An additional fault we find with this view is in its 
attributing purifying power to Death. Death is not 
an entity, but simply a dissolution of soul and body. 
There is nothing in the parting of the two natures to 
produce holiness. Moreover, if Death purifies or 



8 THB SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

sanctifies then is it a saviour. Indeed, it does what 
Christ has not been able to do, according to these false 
notions. He could pardon, but Death they say 
purifies ! Nor is this all of the absurdity of this view ; 
for if Death purifies us, then is Death a friend ! But 
the Bible distinctly says that Death is an enemy; 
"the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 

We can not but offer the following thought to all 
who believe that we are only made pure and holy 
In death ; that if this be so, then it is a great pity for 
people to get well who are sick. All drug stores 
should be discontinued, and physicians should be 
remonstrated with who are trying to restore indisposed 
and diseased people to health and life. They should 
be told that they are making a great mistake. " Do 
you not know, Doctor/' we should say to them, 
*• that if you let this man die he will become pure ; but 
if you restore him, you are simply helping to protract 
and prolong sin in him and in his life?" The utter 
untenableness of the idea is seen without our adding 
another argument. 

A third view is the Reformation Theory. Those 
who hold to this simply bid men to quit their badness. 
The exhortation is to stop doing wrong, join the 
church, lead a moral life, and the first thing they 
know they will be clean and pure. 

This is the world's idea of holiness It makes a man 
his own saviour, and as a moral procedure is nothing 



DIFFERENT THEORIES. 9 

but whitewashing. The trouble with whitewash is 
that it comes off in a driving rain or through the course 
of time. The fence has not been changed, but simply 
coated. The old rotten plank is still underneath. 
We want something better than this in religion. It is 
not a coat of paint we want, but a new fence, not to 
be whitewashed, but washed white. The world white- 
washes, but Jesus washes white. We read once of an 
old inn in England called The Inn of the Black Dra- 
gon. A gentleman bought it, and not liking the sign 
painted it out, and on the new coat had the picture of 
a white lamb drawn. The hotel was now The Inn of 
the White Lamb. And so the sign creaked in the 
breezes for several years, pelted by the snow and rain 
and rocked by the wind. One night there was a fear- 
ful storm, and next morning the landlord, on walking 
out on the pavement, glanced upward at his sign, and 
lo! the lamb was gone, and there pawing in the air 
was the old black dragon. The last storm of rain had 
washed off the lamb. 

Herein is seen the trouble with the Reformation 
business. It is a skin-deep matter. It is manners 
rather than morals. It is a superficial coat instead of 
a radical change, and any time under a severe provo- 
cation the lamb is likely to disappear and the dragon 
take the deck. 

We once saw when a lad a piece of candy with the 
word love appearing in red color on the end of the 



IO THE SANCTIFIED WF«. 

stick. On biting off an end of it, the word was still 
seen. Deeper down we went in saccharine bites, but 
the word i*ovB was always there. In fact, it ran 
through the whole stick. This is the way we want 
cleansing. We desire it through and through. No 
matter how deep men may go in their investigation, 
nor how knives may chop us off here and there, yet, 
recognized by men and felt by ourselves, we want the 
purifying work of Christ to abide. 

A fourth view is the Zinzendorfian Theory. This 
teaching affirms that purity is obtained in regenera- 
tion. Concerning this false piece of theology, Mr. 
Wesley said that such a doctrine had never been 
heard of until Zinzendorf, a German Count, arose to 
teach it. It is well known how he wrote and preached 
against the heresy. 

Truly, it seems that Methodism has drifted mar- 
velously when her preachers can turn against the 
well-known declarations of her founder, and proclaim 
the opinions of a German Count as Methodist truth, 
when Mr. Wesley opposed and denounced it wherever 
he went. William Bramwell declared that he foresaw 
this doctrine would be the devil's big gun; and so it 
has proved. The amazing subtilty as well as fatality 
of this movement of Satan is seen at once when we 
call attention to the fact that he secures the same end 
by this teaching that he did when he had men believ- 
ing for ages that they could never be made pure and 



DIFFERENT THEORIES. II 

be saved from sin in this world. As light poured in 
on men's minds through the pages of Holy Writ, and 
they saw that holiness was promised and possible, the 
great Adversary changed his tactics and taught that 
heart purity or holiness is obtained in regeneration. 
The astonishing fact is that by two such different 
teachings the same result is achieved — sin is left in the 
heart. For if men are taught that they have all in 
regeneration, the "pressing after, M the "groaning 
for" the full deliverance does not take place, and so 
inbred sin is left unpurged in the soul. 

As we stated in a chapter in "The Old Man," 
if regeneration is purity, then the advocates of this 
doctrine should have the following proofs: They 
should have analogies of nature teaching perfection in 
birth; the statement of God's Word declaring regen- 
erated people to be pure; and the testimony of God's 
children saying that they have so found it in their 
experience. But when we come to look for these evi- 
dences, there is not one to be found. As for the 
analogies in nature, while we have abundance to prove 
perfection in creation, there are none to teach perfec- 
tion or cleanness in birth. Nothing is born physically 
perfect in the animal kingdom, whether among beasts 
or men. A faithful examination will prove this. As 
for the Bible, it distinctly recognizes and names a 
principle or nature of evil left in the child of God. 
In one place it is called a " filthiness of spirit M ; and 



12 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

auy one can see that this could not be a material 
something. As for Christian testimony, we find that 
while men will insist in controversial articles, hun- 
dreds of miles away, that they obtained all in regen- 
eration, yet when it comes to standing up in a testi- 
mony meeting where many eyes are upon them, and 
above all God is felt to be searchingly and power- 
fully present, that at such times and places they are 
most significantly silent. In addition to all this is the 
voiceless but strong opinion of the families and friends 
of these brethren that they did not ' ' get it all * ' at 
conversion, that regeneration, whatever else it may 
have accomplished, had not made them pure. 

The fifth view is the Growth Theory. Many thou- 
sands hold to this in all the different churches. Their 
position is that pardon and spiritual life are realized in 
regeneration, but holiness or entire sanctification comes 
as a development. It is away over yonder in the 
future somewhere. It is dim from its great distance 
from us. If we attain at all, it must be by the long 
process of a silent growth. This method, among 
other excellencies, disturbs no one's sensibilities by 
the noise of a sudden arrival. In the concern for the 
feelings of certain people, it looks like they do not 
propose to arrive at all. 

The mistake that these brethren make is in con- 
founding purity and maturity. Maturity or mellow- 
ness or ripeness comes with the flight of time, both in 



DIFFERENT THEORIES. \$ 

nature and grace, but the blessing we are contending 
for is not maturity but purity — a grace that is to be 
obtained as suddenly and sensibly as pardon. 

Moreover, the people of God who hold to the 
growth view are confronted with the embarrassing fact 
that they can not present a single instance of a Chris- 
tian coming into this blessing by development. This 
embarrassment is manifest when asked to produce a 
witness. They can not do it. Such a person has 
never and will never be found. Repeatedly the author 
has asked the question of large congregations in all 
parts of the United States, that he might establish by 
the answer the real truth, and he has never yet found 
a single person who received it by growth. On the 
contrary, many thousands have stood on their feet to 
witness that they obtained the grace instantaneously 
by an act of faith in Christ. 

We can not but affirm that if a man had been 
traveling on a train from St. Louis to Cincinnati for a 
week, and had not reached his destination, that there 
would be reason to believe he was on the wrong road. 
But what if he had been going a year! — and what if 
he had been traveling twenty or thirty years, yes, 
forty years, and still had not reached Cincinnati! 
Then he ought to know he was on the wrong road, 
and the most sensible thing to do would be to change 
cars, conductors, tickets, direction and everything. 
Not less true is it that if a person ha* been seeking 



14 THE SANCTIFIED UFK. 

for sanctification along the Christian growth line for 
ten, twenty or forty years, and has not yet obtained 
the rich grace, that here is unmistakable evidence that 
he is on the wrong route. It would be wisdom indeed 
to look in the Word and see if there is not a speedier 
and truer way. 

Of course, the advocates of the Growth Theory 
have Scriptures to quote to prove their view. One 
very popular verse is "grow in grace"! To which 
we reply, Certainly; but this does not say " grow info 
grace." There is a great difference between "grow 
in M and M grow into." No man can grow "into M a 
grace of God, but after being inducted by divine 
power, it is the most natural and easy thing for him 
after that to "grow in grace." A tree can not grow 
into another field, but if transplanted can easily then 
grow in it. So a sinner can not grow into repentance. 
God's power puts him there, and being there, then he 
grows in grace. So a Christian can not grow into 
sanctification. Again 'the divine power is used to 
place him in the new experience, but once in, then he 
can grow in grace. Again, no saint can grow into 
heaven. Here God lifts him the third time and plants 
him in the fields of life. Immediately he begins to 
grow in grace in heaven. So we grow in grace in 
regeneration, sanctification, and heaven; but we could 
not and did not grow into a single one of them. 

There are other Scripture passages which they quote, 



DIFFERENT THEORIES. 15 

but as we have answered them in "The Old Man" 
we will not repeat here. 

Again, there is the Imputation Theory. This is 
held by a number of excellent people. They say that 
the heart is never made entirely clean in this life, but 
purity is imputed to it through Christ. One of these 
advocates was talking with a Bishop in the M. E. 
Church, and in the course of the conversation said: 
" My heart is dark and foul; I find corruption in it. 
But Jesus comes and throws His white robe of purity 
over my black heart, and no one can see the black- 
ness. And when Christ appears for His own He will 
come to me as I am thus covered up, and will take 
me off with His robe." The Bishop meditated a 
moment and said: "Yes; Christ is coming for His 
own one of these days; and when He arrives He will 
do this very thing. But the black and foul do not be- 
long to Him, so He will take His robe and leave you." 

Imputed purity will not do. We want something 
deeper and more subjective. We know what imputed 
purity in a legal sense in the Bible means; but that 
same Bible teaches that we are brought into heaven 
not simply in a legal way, but are fitted for it as well. 
It is not only an imputed purity, but an imparted 
purity. The Word says: "From all your filthiness 
will I cleanse you" — "I will purge away thy dross 
and take away thy tin." This is what God promises 
and what the soul craves and must have to see God. 



16 THE SANCTIFIED LIFK. 

n What is imputed purity," said a man once, " but 
a snowstorm in a barnyard?" " Yes," replied a Sal- 
vation Army Captain, " and what if there should be a 
thaw!" 

The trouble is that the "thaw" does come in 
such cases, and then what a moral, or rather immoral, 
spectacle we behold ! 

Let men deny and argue as they will, the yearning 
for a pure heart is left in the regenerate soul, and it is 
a longing not for something imputed to it in a hazy 
kind of way, but something given and enjoyed as a 
blessed, blissful possession. Moreover, the fact that 
this longing is in the regenerated heart shows that it 
is a grace as yet unpossessed, and so should inspire 
and urge the believer on unweariedly until he comes 
into the realization of the crowning blessing of the 
Christian life. 



CHAPTER II, 

THE TRUE THEORY. 

T^HE true 5 theory of entire sanctification is that it is 
an instantaneous work of God wrought in the 
soul of a regenerated man or woman in answer to 
perfect consecration, unswerving faith, and importun- 
ate prayer. 

That there is a growth in grace before the recep- 
tion of this blessing, and a rapid growth afterwards, 
is hereby affirmed, and no intelligent teacher of holi- 
ness thinks of denying. But neither the ante growth 
or the post growth is the work itself of which we 
speak. That work, which cleanses the heart from all 
sin, no matter how preceded by mortification of spirit 
and crucifying of the flesh, is done in a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye, by the mighty power of God. 

We are never to confound the things we do with 
what God does. We get ready for Him. We place 
ourselves in position, and the fire descends. We sanc- 
tify ourselves that He might sanctify us. 

It is God's work. The Bible abounds in such 
statements. "Create in me a clean heart, O God.' f 
M He will purify the sons of Levi." u From all your 
filthiness and all your idols will I cleanse you." 

17 



18 THE SANCTIFIED UFK. 

11 Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that 
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of 
water by the word, that he might present it to himself 
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing; but that it should be holy and without 
blemish." 

This purification is never attributed as a result to 
death or growth in grace, but is always declared to be 
the work of God. 

It is therefore quite astonishing when we declare 
the fact of God's cleansing the heart from all remain- 
ing sin that men should call it "our theory." It is 
not our teaching, but the Bible's own statement. It 
is impossible to read the Word without seeing it every- 
where. 

It is wonderful how the plain setting forth of God's 
Word is called a " theory ," and so branded and 
avoided. A presiding elder was speaking to a sancti- 
fied preacher on his district, and said: l4 I recognize 
your lovely spirit, excellent life and faithful ministry, 
but I can not endorse your theory." The preacher 
replied: u Well, here is a remarkable thing. Suppose 
I am presented with an apple which is large and rosy, 
has a pleasant smell and delicious taste; and I say to 
it, Apple, you are large, rosy, fragrant and luscious, 
but I can not endorse the tree that grew you. Now, 
brother, this speech would not be more surprising and 
unreasonable on my part than yours to me; for you 



THE TRUE THEORY. 19 

admit that my spirit and life are all right and gospel 
labors successful, and yet refuse to endorse the very 
blessing by which I obtained this spirit and achieve 
this success." 

It is nothing on earth but the opposition of the 
carnal mind to the divine way of doing things. This 
is God's method of purifying the heart. He does it 
Himself . In like manner men resisted the faith theory 
of justification in Luther's time, and so men oppose 
the faith theory of an instantaneous sanctification to* 
day. But it will yet be seen on earth, as it will be 
perfectly known in heaven, that the "Second Blessing 
Theory," so often ridiculed and assailed, is God's way 
of sanctifying the soul. The ridicule hurled at it is 
no indication of its not being true, for it stands in 
good company in the matter of an undeserved obloquy. 
So the multitude jeered at Christ on the cross. So 
men laugh at the Bible, and at the doctrines of the 
Resurrection and the Final Judgment. And so have 
I seen them laugh at revival meetings when the Holy 
Ghost was saving people and they were shouting the 
praises of God. Men mocked at Pentecost, and con- 
tinue to ridicule the truth and work of God. A 
minister said in the preachers' meeting of a large 
Western city that "he was convinced that the whole 
second blessing movement was born in hell." There 
was not a preacher present who enjoyed the blessing 
of sanctification. Most of them were skeptical in re- 



ao THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

gard to the matter, and were trying to keep it out of 
their churches; but at this fearful remark there was a 
chorus of protesting voices from the entire body: 
'No, no, brother; don't say that!" The speech of 
the excited man bordered wonderfully near to blas- 
phemy against the Holy Ghost. To say that the 
holiness movement, inspired and swept onward by the 
Holy Spirit, is a work born in hell is frightfully simi- 
lar to the utterance of the angry Jews when Christ by 
the power of the Spirit cast out devils in their pres- 
ence. They said He did it by the power of Beelzebub, 
locating the power and origin of the miracle in hell. 
It, was then Jesus turned and said: " The blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven. ' ' This He 
said, Mark writes, " because they said He had an un- 
clean spirit. ' ' They gave a divine work a hellish origin. 
But no matter how men deny and resist, the Bible 
teaches that the purification of the heart is the work 
of God. Peter tells how this purifying came by faith 
on the day of Pentecost, and John states that it is 
while M we walk in the light," " having fellowship one 
with another," that then M the blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth us from all sin. M As thus taught in God's 
Word, it is a divine work and subsequent to regenera- 
tion. Mr. Wesley says the last quoted verse is one 
of the strongest passages to teach the second work. 
Of course, the word "cleanseth" is in the present 
tense, and this very fact gives the idea of the constant, 



THE TRUE THEORY, 21 

anbrokeu, perpetual sense of cleanness that comes 
with the blessing of entire sanctification. But not 
less clear is the truth that this cleansing from all sin 
came while the man was " in the light" and enjoying 
Christian "fellowship." 

But, says an objector, I do not believe that God 
has to do His work over again. The answer to this 
is that sanctification is not the doing over of regenera- 
tion, but is a different work altogether. The second 
work being not to improve regeneration but to elimin- 
ate inbred sin. 

Still, with this explanation, the objector has spoken 
hastily in saying God does not have to do his work 
over again. This He certainly does in the recovery 
of every backslider. 

But, says the objector again, I do not believe that 
God does a second work; I believe He accomplishes 
everything He has to do in one work. 

The reply to this is that, plausible as is the speech, 
everything contradicts it in nature and grace. The 
first contradiction is from the world, which as it rolls 
through space says God made me by six distinct 
touches or works; every one was different, and all six 
together made me the habitable earth I am to-day. 

The second contradiction comes from the human 
family. When Adam was created, the race in its federal 
nature was not completed. It takes not only male 
but female to make man, and the two were not made 



22 THB SANCTIFIED UFS. 

at once. God first created man and then afterwards 
made the woman and brought her to Adam. There 
are few but will admit that the second work was an 
improvement on the first. So it took two works to 
make what is properly called man. The author can 
not see how a woman can get her consent to fight the 
second blessing when she is a second blessing herself. 

The third contradiction is seen in the two covenants 
God has at different times given the world. The Bible 
says there were two, and Paul distinctly says that the 
first was not perfect. Some people insist that every 
one of God's works is perfect; they seem to know 
more than the I/)rd Himself, for He affirms in His 
own Word that the first covenant was not faultless, 
while in James we read that " every good gift and 
every perfect gift is from above/' showing that there 
is a difference in God's gifts, some being good and 
some perfect. Regeneration is never called perfection 
in the Bible; but being regenerated, we are told to go 
oigi to perfection. So the first covenant not being 
faultless, God gives another that is perfect, in which the 
" old sin is purged *'; there is no more " remembrance 
of sin," and the worshiper himself is " made perfect." 
Two works are beheld in regard to the covenants. 

The fourth contradiction to the statement that God 
does everything in one work is seen in what took 
place with the disciples on the day of Pentecost. They 
evidently received a new divine work or grace on the 



THS TROT THEORY. *% 

tnorning of the tenth day. That they were converted 
men and women when they went into the upper room 
there can be no doubt if language means anything. 
Christ said they were branches of the true Vine, that 
their names were in the Book of Life, and that they 
were not of the world, even as He was not of the 
world. He had sent them forth to preach the Gospel, 
and this He has never done with sinners. They had 
cast out devils, and Christ said that a devil could not 
cast out a devil, else was the house of Satan divided. 
In addition to all this, days before He had breathed 
upon them and said: fl Receive ye the Holy Ghost/' 
Who can read these statements and descriptions and 
not see that they were saved men and women? Yet 
on the morning of the tenth day suddenly the power 
of God fell upon them and they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with new 
tongues. Peter leaped to his feet and cried out: 
" This is what Joel said should take place in the last 
days." This one speech of Peter proves it was a new 
grace or blessing received. Here was something long 
ago prophesied just sent down upon them. Certainly 
this could not be pardon and regeneration, for men had 
enjoyed the justified experience all along. Surely 
the patriarchs, prophets, David, Simeon, Anna, and 
John the Baptist had religion. The very astonishment 
and gladness of the disciples showed that the blessing 
was new. Suppose, for instance, one of us should 



24 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE, 

promise our children a remarkable breakfast. They 
could scarcely sleep for thinking what it would be, but 
of course looked for dainties and luxuries. But next 
morning, on filing into the dining room, they discov- 
ered the same old breakfast of bread, meat and coffee. 
One thing is certain, they would not be in a rapture, 
and none of them would spring on a chair and cry out 
in enthusiasm: "This is what Joel said should take 
place.** If what happened at Pentecost was what had 
been experienced before, how can the joy and aston- 
ishment and quotation of Peter be reconciled with the 
facts? Nol instead of this we are brought face to 
face again with the second work of grace. The mar- 
velous change that took place in the disciples from 
this hour settles the fact that it was a second work, 
not of pardon and life, but of purity and power. 

The fifth contradiction is seen in what took place 
with the Saviour on the banks of Jordan when He 
was baptized with the Holy Ghost. All of us know 
that Christ was without sin, that Satan could find 
nothing in Him in all His beautiful and holy life; and 
yet on the banks of Jordan He received what had not 
come upon Him before, in the anointing or Baptism of 
the Holy Ghost. There are two works accomplished 
in the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as received by the 
Christian believer — "purifying the heart" and "en- 
duement of power." In Christ's case, there was no 
inbred sin or moral taint of any kind to be purged 



THE TRUK THEORV. aj 

away. All that could take place with His spotless 
human nature was the empowering of the Spirit. 
Hence the Holy Ghost did not descend on Him with 
fire, as in the case of the disciples, but as a dove. 
That the Saviour did receive the enduement of power 
then, is seen by the clear statements of Scripture. It 
was after this memorable morning that it is said that 
11 He went forth in the power of the Spirit. " This 
was not said of Him before. We are also made to 
remark the effect of this anointing immediately upon 
His ministry. We read that He went up to Nazareth 
and on the Sabbath day entered into the synagogue, 
and when the roll of Scripture was put in His hands 
He stood up to read, and selected as His text from 
Isaiah the very thing that had happened to Him on 
the River Jordan: "The Spirit of the Lord God is 
upon me: because he hath anointed me to preach good 
tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up 
the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives 
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 
to proclaim the acceptable year of the I*ord," etc. 
We read that He then sat down and began to preach, 
and all marveled at His words. Moreover, the dis- 
course was so heart-searching and incisive that the 
officials of the synagogue became enraged and took 
hold of Him violently and tried to hurl Him down a 
precipice. Now lest any one should think this was 
Christ's first public talk or sermon, the Scripture says 



26 THE SANCTIFIED UtfB. 

He stood up that day in the synagogue u according to 
His custom" The difference was that He had received 
the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and His words, now 
power-freighted, were simply overwhelming. It does 
seem to us that, in view of this occurrence, men 
should be slow in saying God does everything in one 
work. He does not. He did not even do so with His 
own Son. And when we hear a man say that he ob- 
tained all in repentance, and then note the one abso- 
lutely perfect man who ever lived receiving on the 
banks of Jordan the anointing or Baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, we are made to marvel at some people's mental 
density or spiritual arrogance. 

The sixth contradiction is to be found in the two 
touches laid by the hand of Christ on the eyes of the 
blind man. It does seem to the writer that this second 
touch was given by the Saviour, if for no other rea- 
son than to close the mouths of people who say that 
God does everything in one work. Vision came with 
the first touch and perfect vision with the second. 
This very order ought to prepare the people to see 
how that love comes with one operation of divine 
grace and perfect love with another. 

The seventh contradiction is seen in the word Re- 
demption. Usually men think that the word stands 
for one work, when it really covers four. The first 
work wrought in the salvation of a soul is conviction. 
This can never be done by a man. It is a divine work 



THE TRUE THEORY. «7 

It takes the Holy Ghost to burden a man for his sins, 
and when it is done that man is miserable and restless, 
and oftentimes can neither eat nor sleep. Still the 
man is not saved; he is simply convicted. But when 
he repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ the 
Holy Ghost works again and this time regenerates 
him. Still there is a third work, for Paul writes to 
regenerated people, and says, "This is the will of 
God even your sanctification," and still again, "The 
God of peace sanctify you wholly." He who regen- 
erates can sanctify us wholly. But there is yet a 
fourth divine work, and this time upon the body. It 
is called the resurrection. The body is a part of man 
and is included in redemption. It is to be raised from 
the dust and out of death, and renewed with trans- 
cendent glory. This is the last work. Redemption 
is then completed. Instead, then, of one work, re- 
demption includes four! — conviction, regeneration, en- 
tire sanctification, and resurrection. And yet there 
are some people who say that God does everything in 
one work. 

Thus we meet the objections that God never has to 
do His work over again, and never does but one work. 
The sweeping away of these opposing thoughts leaves 
us with the blessed truth that God can and will and 
does purify the pardoned soul. It is His work and 
our privilege. 

Thank God that when Christ came to this world 



28 TH* SANCTIFIED UF*. 

He did not appear in our midst with one gift of grace, 
but with two. He had no empty hand, but both were 
full for the human family— Pardon in one for the sin- 
ner, and Purity in the other for the believer. May 
every child of God lose no more time, but press for- 
ward at once and receive the blessing that has bees 
long waiting him 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BLESSING IS OBTAINABLE NOW. 

TF God can purify the heart and will not, He would 

be a strange God. There would be room here for 
the charge of divine indifference and even cruelty, if 
this was so. 

If the Divine Being would purify the soul and can 
not, then we have a weak and helpless Lord to wor- 
ship. But who will say for a moment that He can 
not ? And who would believe that He will not ? 

The fact is that God is able and willing to sanctify 
the soul. If able and willing to do it, there certainly 
is no need of postponing the work to the hour of 
death. To thus remand our expectation to the very 
brink of the grave is to reflect on the goodness as well 
as holiness of the Almighty. We can not afford to do 
this. 

Certainly if God is willing to do the work, and He 
alone can do it, why should we not seek it now, and 
expect and receive it now ? 

The blessing of sanctification is taught in one place 
as a purifying of the heart and an empowering for 
service. In another place it is described as the 
entrance of Christ into the soul as an indweller. The 



JO Tun SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

same truth is taught under this change of terms, fot 
the Lord will not abide unbrokenly in the heart until 
inbred sin is cleansed away by the Baptism of the Holy 
Ghost and fire, and the result of that constant in- 
dwelling is bound to be power. So " purifying M and 
11 empowering " is the same thing as Chrises entrance 
into the soul to abide permanently. It was this He 
referred to in the fourteenth chapter of John when He 
said : " We will come unto him and make our abode 
with him. 91 When this takes place, the man will find 
that he has purity and power ; in a word, sanctified. 

How may such a wonderful blessing be obtained ? 
Let us see if we can not present the matter in such a 
way that the hungry, watchful soul can go right into 
this beautiful grace of God. 

One of the frequent descriptions given of man in 
the Bible is that of a house, building or temple. M Ye 
are God 9 s building, 99 says the apostle; and again, 
11 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? 99 

We were originally made or built for God to dwell 
in. Satan marred the plan of Heaven by taking 
possession of us. Some of you have seen a beautiful 
dwelling pass out of the hands of the first owners and 
finally become the abode of poverty and degradation. 
The writer once looked at a famous hotel that in its 
palmy days had seen in its spacious rooms and halls 
the beauty, chivalry and statesmanship of a large 
Southern State. But at the time he viewed it, about 



OBTAINABLE NOW. 3 1 

the only thing left of the magnificence was its colossal 
size. It had become a tenement for the vilest and 
most poverty-stricken classes in the city. The paint 
had faded from the wall, doors were gone or hanging 
on a single hinge, and window panes were broken and 
stnffed with rags. Dark- looking dissipated and ragged 
figures lounged about the portals or hung out of the 
windows; dogs and pigs roamed unchecked through 
the lower halls and galleries ; and one could scarcely 
realize that this place had once been as attractive as it 
was now revolting 

So Satan took God's building and rubbed off the 
colors of grace and innocence, planted decay and moral 
ugliness where he could, filled the door of the mouth 
with all kinds of uncleanness, hung forbidding looks 
out of the windows of the eyes, and shocked the 
beholder in every way. But through grace this house 
is redeemed from the devil. It becomes the Lord's 
again. It is washed, cleansed, and warmed, and 
recognized as God's property. Everybody marks the 
delightful change. 

There is one thing, however, that constitutes a 
painful experience to the redeemed man himself, and 
which is evident as a fact to the observer, and that is 
the Saviour is not an abider in this house which 
belongs to Him. He is a visitor, coming and going, 
but not a steady, constant indweller. 

This visiting Christ, now consciously in the soul and 



32 mn SANCTIFIED UFE. 

now as consciously absent, will upon compliance with 
conditions on our part come into us and take up His 
fixed and unchanging abode. When this happens, 
sanctification happens. The purifying Spirit goes 
through the soul, and Christ enters to leave no more 
if we will have it so. 

How is this entering in and blessed possession of us 
to take place? The whole matter is made clear by 
following out a line of thought suggested by the image 
or figure of the building. Remember that the Saviour* s 
word is that if we will do certain things, "we will 
come unto Him and make our abode with Him. M 
And remember that visiting is one thing and abiding 
is another. Some of you will recall the first time you 
ever saw }-our wife. She was paying a visit at your 
father's home. It w r as a brief call, but it affected you 
forever and changed the house itself. The room she 
stood in looked different, the furniture assumed a new 
and peculiar luster, the goblet out of which she 
drank water you quietly set aside as your own, de- 
termining that no other lips should desecrate it. The 
old brick walk down which she went, and the gate 
with its overarching trees through which she passed, 
took upon themselves a subtle charm and glory. This 
was only a visit, but a year from that time she came 
again, and this time to stay. She came with trunks 
and baggage and took up her abode. She was now 
your wife. 



OBTAINABLE NOW. 33 

The blessing we speak of changes Christ from a 
visitor to an abider in the heart. His visits were 
beautiful and blessed, but alas for the absences ! How 
we used to sing : 

"Return, O Holy Dove, return," 

and 

" How tedious and tasteless the hours 
When Jesus no longer I see." 

The indwelling is what we want ; Christ to move in, 
take possession and never leave us any more. 

This is brought about by a method analagous to 
what we see when a person moves into an earthly 
home. 

First, the house is to be emptied. If a man purchases 
a building from you, there is one thing he expects, 
and that you do, — you empty it for him. He does not 
want your old goods and chattels. He has furniture 
of his own, and doubtless much better than the kind 
you possess. So in offering yourself as the Lord's 
dwelling place, He demands that you let everything 
go, keep nothing back, and, in a word, empty your- 
self. 

This is only another way of describing consecration. 
A man who is laying everything on the altar is simply 
emptying himself. As the consecration proceeds, the 
person is conscious of an increasing emptiness, and 
just before the blessing comes, in describing his ex- 
perience he would say : I have given up everything, am 



34 * HB SANCTIFIED UFK. 

all emptied, and have nothing as yet in return except 
the conviction that I have done right. 

The writer illustrated this emptying process in his 
church in St. Louis. In front of the pulpit stretched a 
large altar in the form of a semi-circle. Its shape was 
made to stand for the heart. At the beginning of the 
illustration there were a number of persons in the 
altar, besides books, papers, overcoats, hats, etc., etc. 
The preacher quietly put the individuals out and off the 
platform, saying that he would not let a single human 
being fill the place where Christ should reign. After 
this he threw out the hats, overcoats, gloves and wraps, 
declaring that the dress question should be settled in 
that manner. Then he removed the handsome chairs 
from the stand, affirming that rich furniture should not 
be an idol with him. Then he picked up some books 
and papers and put them outside the altar, with the 
remark that men's writings and opinions should not 
stand a moment before the known will and command of 
God. About this time the altar looked exceedingly 
empty ; but still the illustrator was not satisfied. 
Going about, he found minute things, like bits of 
paper and thread on the floor. Stooping down, he 
carefully picked them up and cast them outside the 
altar rail saying: "Nothing, no matter how small, 
shall stay." At last only himself and the Bible were 
left inside the altar-heart. Whereupon, after placing 
the Holy Book in the very center of the altar, he him- 



OBTAINABLE NOW. 35 

self stepped out, declaring as he went that the Word 
of God should alone rule and reign in that heart. 

A hundred or more people stood around looking at 
this figurative sermon. There was not an individual 
who looked into the emptied, silent altar, with the 
solitary Bible in the center of the platform, but felt 
solemnized, and grasped with a convicting clearness 
what emptying of the heart meant and must be in 
order that Christ might come. 

This is unquestionably the hard thing with many to 
do. Yet it must be done. It may take days, but there 
will be no divine incoming until there is the human 
emptying. How is it possible to fill us until we are 
first emptied ? How could God truthfully say we had 
His fullness when something of self and the world was 
left ? Emptied first, filled afterward is the order. The 
disciples were ten days engaged in the human part of 
the work. We once thought they were ten days 
getting filled with the Holy Ghost, but they were ten 
days getting emptied. It does not take God ten 
seconds to fill thoroughly and overflowingly the self- 
emptied man. God moves at once into the vacated 
dwelling. 

Second, the house must be cleansed. That indi- 
vidual would be lacking in self-respect who would turn 
an untidy and defiled building over to the man who 
had purchased and desired to move into it. 

So there is a cleansing of hands and hearts to 



36 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

obtain Jesus, the indwelling Sanctifier, in our souls. 
There was a cleansing in regeneration from all personal 
guilt and sin. Yet is there a deeper purifying for the 
man in whom the Son of God will abide forever. The 
disciples, in the sixteenth chapter of John, were called 
"clean " by Christ, but in the seventeenth chapter He 
prayed His Father to "sanctify" them, and sanctify 
means to make pure and holy. To obtain this pro- 
founder purification which removes the principle itself 
of sin, we are called upon to cleanse ourselves first. 
This does not mean that the regenerated man is a 
sinner. What is meant will be taught him in that 
hour when he pants for Jesus to come into him. 

Sanctify yourselves; for the Lord your God will 
sanctify you. There is a double sanctification, a 
human and a divine. We sanctify and then God 
sanctifies. We cleanse the life and He cleanses the 
soul. We attend to the seen and He to the unseen. 

A woman will wash the windows and floors of the 
house for the new owner, but we never yet knew the 
incoming female satisfied with the washing or house 
cleansing of the outgoing woman. She at once travels 
over the track of her scouring predecessor with soap, 
brush and broom, giving what she calls a better clean- 
ing. So in like manner, deep as may be our purifying, 
God purifies still deeper. We may brush down the 
spider webs, but it take9 the Lord to kill the spider. 

Tkird, ytoti must stand at the floo* of am emptied 



OBTAINABLE NOW. 37 

and cleansed house and watch and wait for the coming 
of the owner. This is what we have seen people do. 
The house had been prepared and the former possessor 
stood with keys in hand awaiting the arrival of the 
new purchaser. 

So should the seeker of sauctification stand at the 
door of his own emptied heart and look up for his 
descending I^orcL We never knew of Christ coming 
with this blessing to any other than to such an upward 
looker and expecter. As the writer recalls certain 
ones he has seen sanctified, his heart melts and eyes 
fill from the bare memory as he sees them again with 
that indescribably pathetic gaze, the soul in the eyes f 
looking and longing for Jesus to descend and fill His 
blood-bought home. 

Of course, we do not mean that the physical glance 
is always upward. Sometimes it is not and the head 
is bowed, but the soul-gaze is always heavenward, no 
matter where the bodily eyes may be resting. More- 
over, we all recognize the fact of this spiritual uplook 
and feel at the same time that something will soon 
happen to the wistful gazer, and it does. 

Happy the man who will not allow himself to 
be diverted and distracted, but having emptied and 
cleansed his heart, will stand waiting with ardent 
prayer and expectation for Christ to descend, fill, and 
ever after remain as the glorious indweller of the soul 

It is the attitude of surrender and devotement* 



38 THS SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

the spirit of faith and the grace of supplication aQ 
united in one person. Such an one will not be dis- 
appointed. Christ is certain to come. He can not 
stay away. 

At this juncture conies the filling, or taking posses- 
sion. Just as an earthly owner sweeping up with 
carriages and vans moves into his new home, so Jesus 
descends in chariots of fire with the furniture of heaven 
to fill and take possession of the perfectly consecrated 
and waiting soul. What an epoch, and what an 
experience ! Who can forget it ? The very memory 
arising in after years fills the eyes and sets the soul 
on fire anew. 

• Jesus comes. He fills my soul, 
Perfected in love I am ; 
I am every whit made whole, 
Glory, glory to the Lamb." 

Or, as sung by Charles Wesley over one hundred 

years ago : 

" He visits now the house of clay ; 
He shakes His future home ; 
O wouldst thou, Lord, in this glad day 
Into thy temple come. 

M Come, O my God, thyself reveal 
Fill all this mighty void ; 
Thou only canst my spirit fill ; 
Come, O my God, my God." 

We recall a lady who the morning she received 
this blessing was leaning against a great pillar in the 
center of the church. What a hungry, wistful look 



OBTAINABLE NOW. 39 

she had ! Her hands were folded and eyes looking 
upward, when suddenly the glorious blessing came in 
the entrance of the Blesser. With a great rapturous 
cry that went through every heart she fell forward as 
if shot through the heart with a musket ball. 

Another lady we remember who had consecrated 
believed, prayed, waited, looked and received Jesus 
into her soul in the sweetest, gentlest way. We saw 
her afterwards at the altar with an uplifted look, and 
perfectly abstracted from her surroundings. With a 
strange, sweet smile on the face, her eyes seemed 
fixed on worlds out of sight. For an hour she never 
moved a muscle nor closed an eyelid. People passed 
before her, but she seemed to look through them. 
It was like one hanging out of a window of Time, 
gazing into Eternity. She seemed to be looking at 
Christ and into heaven, while the soul's voiceless con- 
tent and immeasurable calm was written in every line 
of the rapt countenance. No one was able to behold 
her without the tears gushing. All felt that Christ 
had come to His home and was abiding therein. A 
soul was hushed into perfect rest in the midst of a 
stormy world. The redeemed, encircled in the divine 
arms and pillowed on the divine breast, was looking 
into the face of the Redeemer. 

" Blessed quietness ; holy quietness, 
What assurance fills my soul ; 
On the stormy sea, Jesus speaks to me, 
And the billows cease to roll." 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BLESSING MAY BE LOST. 

\17HKN one is told what sanctification is to the ex* 
perience and life; what inward rest and out- 
ward activity, what usefulness and victory it brings, 
what deliverance from torment, and what mighty 
keeping power on the part of God is realized ; the 
amazement is great that such a blessing should ever 
be lost. 

For some reasons it is surprising. One would 
think that such a pearl of great price would be so 
jealously guarded that it could never be stolen. One 
would reason that such a life is so close to God, its 
joys so deep, its satisfaction so perfect, that scarcely 
anything on the outside could have sufficient force 
and influence to end so complete a union and so 
delightful an intimacy. 

When, therefore, such cases are reported it causes 
some to doubt the fact that the fallen one ever had 
the grace. Others make it an argument and defense 
for the rejection of the blessing. In what respect, say 
they, is sanctification superior to regeneration if it can 
be lost. 

The last point is plausible and Is not without forot 

4» 



MAY BE LOST. 41 

at the first hearing. But it falls to pieces, however, 
by the simple statement that our moral probation 
is not over at sanctification, and we may not only lose 
the grace of heart purity but the soul itself between 
the point of time called To-day and the Gates of Pearl. 

There is much ignorance among many as to what 
is done in the work of sanctification. According to 
some, all possibility of sinning is removed. We are 
actually placed by such erroneous ideas above Adam, 
for he was in danger while in Eden, but these reason- 
ers, or rather non-reasoners, would put an end to 
probation with us, make temptation a mere name and 
reduce the sanctified soul to the condition of a moral 
machine or automaton. Is it not surprising that they 
can not see the difference between an evil inclination 
and liability to sin ? The power to sin is one thing, 
the proneness to do so is another. Sanctification takes 
out the latter, but leaves the former, which is an 
attribute or necessity in a free moral agent who is 
working out salvation. The proneness to sin may be 
removed, while the power to sin will remain until life 
is ended and we sweep into heaven, where we can not 
sin. So with this power angels fell somewhere in the 
skies. Adam fell in paradise, and regenerated and 
sanctified people can fall in this present world. 

But while sanctification may be lost, yet it is 
unspeakably better while it is retained than the regen- 
erated experience, as far as perfect love and peac* 



42 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

tower above simple love and peace, and a great inward, 
steady, upwelling joy is more to be desired than one 
which is as variable as the winds and fluctuating as 
the tides. 

The fact, however, remains that sanctification can 
be lost, and this is no more an argument against its 
truth and blessedness, than backsliding can be used 
to refute the doctrine and experience of justification. 

The Bible in its warnings prepares us for this 
awful possibility. We are told to "watch" and 
M pray "and "strive/' lest we fall into temptation. 
And as solemnly as a funeral bell falls the words, 
" I^et him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he 
fall." We are not only informed that Satan would 
deceive the very "elect/' but we are shown him 
defiling the high priest Joshua and bringing down 
with an awful crash unto everlasting ruin one of the 
members of the Apostolic College whom Christ had 
chosen. 

The ground and possibility of the fall of the sancti- 
fied is pictured in the house that had been swept and 
garnished, and yet Satan with other evil spirits returns 
to it and takes possession again, and the man's state, 
said Christ, " is worse than the first/' 

Again the Scriptural basis for such a fall is pre^ 
sented in the field of wheat in which there was not 
a single tare. Here is evidently a pure heart. But 
while the owner of the field slept an enemy came and 



MAY BE I<OST. 43 

sowed tares. The damage was done while the man 
slumbered. Herein is the explanation. We can by 
negligence, carelessness, sloth, lack of watchful- 
ness allow the great adversary to resow his tares in 
our purified souls. If he did so in the clean spirit 
of Adam in Paradise, he can do so in the clean soul of 
a man in America. Satan does not resign his throne 
or give up his work because we get sanctified. If 
we become careless and sleepy he will sow the tares of 
inbred sin in us again. 

After these pictures of the devil-repossessed house, 
and the field of wheat sown with tares, we are told 
in the Gospel of the denial of Peter, the fall of Judas, 
the ruin of Ananias, and the defection of Demas. 
Then follow the words of Paul : "I keep under my 
body and bring it into subjection; lest that by any 
means when I have preached to others I myself should 
be a castaway.' ■ 

This is not all, nor the saddest nor darkest things 
that are to be found in the Scriptures in regard to the 
soul's downfall and destruction after having been in 
the highest states of grace. 

The fact is we are free, and the soul feels it in 
every throb of its being. Each man is free, and life 
proves it, the world sees it, and the man knows it. 
With all the constraining and restraining grace of 
God, it is possible for man to break over every barrier 
and choose and secure his own downfall and ruin. 



44 * H * SANCTIFIED UFB. 

The testimony of a great number confirm the 
teaching of the Bible that this most beautiful and 
satisfying grace of God can be lost. Mr. Wesley even 
mentions the percentage of those who in different 
ways part with the blessing ; a percentage, however, 
considerably less than the one he gives for those 
who lose justification. This is noteworthy, as it 
shows that sanctification is not only to be desired on 
account of its superior joys, but for the increased 
safety it brings. 

Still it can be lost. We are to remember that 
Satan does not die because we get sanctified. Nor 
does he give a man up because he has a pure heart. 
If he assailed the innocent Adam in Eden, and the 
spotless Son of God on earth, he certainly will 
not pass by a sanctified soul without many and varied 
and violent assaults. He would particularly enjoy 
getting such a Son of Thunder once more in his 
power, locking again his formerly liberated lips, 
paralyzing his energies and drying up his glad and 
bouyant life. 

There are many such shorn Samsons to-day in the 
land. Men who once towered in this grace and burned 
with holy fire. But they have been crippled in va- 
rious ways, are sunk in gloom and silence, avoid 
the camp-meetings where holiness is sung, prayed, 
preached and shouted ; while some have even gone 
over to the other side against us. 



MAY BE LOST. 45 

When men affect to wonder how a sanctified man 
can fall into sin, they not only overlook the facts we 
have mentioned concerning the free moral agency 
of man that can not be destroyed by any work of 
grace, but they fail to observe the route by which 
sin enters the soul. The knowledge of that alone as 
to how sin gets admission into the citadel of a man's 
life would explain the fall in the skies, the fall in 
Eden, and the fall of every being since that hour. 
Under this light it is seen that it does not require 
inbred sin to make a man transgress. 

Sin to a free moral agent has to come first to the 
intellect. The thought or picture of the evil is pre- 
sented. It is in the power of the man to immediately 
reject the thought and allow it no lodgment even for 
a moment. This is what should be done and is done 
by many. But if the conception, or picture, is al- 
lowed to remain in the mind, it passes at once into the 
region of the Sensibilities, and a commotion is felt 
within as a result. If still cherished, the realm of 
Desire is invaded and a longing for the forbidden 
thing is realized. The next stratum of the moral 
nature that is now entered is the Will. The man 
determines upon the act of commission. Then after 
the determination of the Will the sin emerges into 
daylight in the form of an Act. Then follows repeated 
acts which result in Character, anxi Character settles 

e 

the question of Destiny, 



46 THB SANCTIFIED XJJS. 

The route or descending stairway is seen at * 
glance in the following arrangement of the words : 

THOUGHT, 

DESIRE. 

WIU,, 

ACT, 

HABIT, 

CHARACTER, 

DESTINY, 

Here is a diagram proof showing that it is not 
necessary to have inbred sin in the heart in order 
to do wrong. The moral cognitions and the voli- 
tional powers of the man make an avenue for the 
entrance of evil just as they do for the admission 
of good. The blessing of sanctification, however, 
is not often lost through a flagrant sin or immorality. 
Satan would never come at first to the sanctified with 
gross temptations. He would at later periods of 
weakness, but at first he approaches in more subtle 
and refined methods in order to worm his way back 
into the heart from which he has been cast out. 

The great majority of those who lose the blessing 
have done so from a failure in definite testimony. 
This appears strange to the opposers of sanctification 
who laugh derisively at such a blessing that is to 
be retained by a constant testifying to the fact of its 
presence and enjoyment. But they overlook the fact 



MAT BE tOST. 47 

that the blessing is intended of God for all, and 
the testimony attracts attention, inflames desire for its 
possession, and so spreads the truth and increases the 
number of benefitted souls. Hence the silent pos- 
sessor of holiness has committed a grave error. He 
has hidden his talent in a napkin, and the divine 
command now is, "Take it away from him." Mr. 
Fletcher lost the blessing four times because of his 
silence. He says so in the Life of Hester Ann Rog- 
ers. It is a false humility to be silent in regard 
to this grace, for it is not man's work we testify 
to, but God's. How many persons the writer has 
heard say in meetings all over the United States that 
through failure to testify they had lost the pearl 
of great price. 

Again, the blessing may be lost by allowing the 
soul to become burdened again. Outward trials and 
troubles do not cease because the soul is baptized with 
the Holy Ghost. The disciples abounded in afflic- 
tions after their sanctification, although they also 
abounded in joy. Satan is very anxious to persuade 
the heart to accept the old load of mental care which 
Jesus took away in sanctification. Just a little fret 
and worry is injected, just a little repining and fault- 
finding, just a little self-pity and grief over our 
loneliness, lack of sympathy and peculiar life suffering, 
and so the wedge is driven in and the gap has com- 
menced which, unless speedily closed, will result in 



48 THS SANCTIFIED UP*. 

the entire loss of the blessing. It is at the peril 
of losing the experience that the soul allows itself 
to criticize, repine, find fault and worry about any- 
thing. They that walk in the King's holy way must 
have pure hearts, gentle tongues, loving ways, happy 
faces and restful lives. There was once an old 
house in London that had a stone placed over its 
arched entrance which read : " No Burdens Allowed 
to Pass Here." This is the law of the sanctified 
life. To break it is to be shut out of the experience. 

Again, the blessing may be lost by disobedience. 
One single act will hardly cause the whole gracious 
work of heart purity to be swept away unless it is 
a very grave transgression. But the smallest act 
of disobedience will bring shadows and loss of liberty, 
and if persisted in, is certain at last to bring a calami- 
tous result. 

The blessing of sanctification is lost gradual^. It 
is a rare thing to see such a glorious light extinguished 
and life ended by a single deed. The rule is a slow 
leakage or gradual forfeiture. A very slight angle of 
divergence is formed, and by and by the fact of moral 
distance is not only felt by the drifting one, but is 
recognized by others. 

There seems to be a certain order of departure with 
the blessing. First the joy goes. This is a tender, 
beautiful, upwelling gladness in the soul, and that 
never ceases if thfe man lives up to his privilege* 



MAY BE LOST. 49 

This is the crown and glory of sanctification. It is 
this which gives the bright look to the face, the flash 
to the eye, the bouyancy to the soul, and the inex- 
pressible ring of gladness and triumph to the voice. 
This is the first thing that is affected when holiness, 
as an experience, begins to be lost. 

We do not mean by this joy a feeling of ecstacy ! 
We know people with this gladness who never have 
overwhelming transports and camp-meeting shouting 
experiences. But they possess the quiet inner joy 
born of conscious heart purity and the indwelling 
Christ, and that is read unmistakably in the happy 
smile, the deep, restful look in the eyes, and the 
unruffled peace that literally beams in the shining 
face. Nor do we mean that a temporary arrest of this 
joy signifies the fact of sin, or the loss of the blessing 
of sanctification. A short subsidence of this inner 
gladness may arise from causes not sinful. Mr. 
Wesley speaks of the joy being withheld for a little 
while, why it is done and what the person should 
do under the circumstances. Madame Guyon writes 
in one of her books that the withdrawal of joy at 
times is to wean us away from devotion to feelings. 
But as the joy we speak of is not an emotion like the 
camp-meeting blessing, but the soul's own gladness at 
being right and clean, we fail to agree with her. 

It is the regular absence of this joy which should 
alarm us. The fact that it is received only for a few 



50 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

moments and then fades away rapidly, is the grave 
feature connected with its loss. 

We once lost this joy for a few hours. It was not 
forfeited by a violation of any of the commandments. 
Nor was sanctification as a work of grace lost, but 
was felt to be still remaining. But the tender, beauti- 
ful, upwelling joy was gone which gave the glory, 
charm and power to sanctification. If we should live 
to be an hundred years old we will never forget the 
sharp distress of those hours. We were taught then 
by a negation and deprivation what sanctification was 
to the soul. With groans, sighs and tears we hum- 
bled ourselves before the I^ord. We did not see 
how we could live without that joy, and what is more 
did not care to live without it. Suddenly it was 
restored, and as quietly as it had been taken away. 
With my face buried in my hands but covered with 
smiles, I knew the glory had come again. The sun 
was up, the springtime had come, and the watchman 
on the walls cried out as he walked, " All is well." 

The second thing lost is liberty. The man finds 
himself hampered in different ways. The tongue 
grows stiff, and the presence of people begins to 
paralyze. The bird still sings, but with a feeling 
that it is in a cage. There is movement, but accom- 
panied with a sensation of circumscribing bars and 
walls. 

We do not speak here of a sense of mental and 



MAY BE LOST. 51 

physical heaviness that may arise from sickness, 
exhaustion and atmospheric conditions. This will 
necessarily happen to the best of people. We refer to 
the continued loss of true liberty that has for its cause 
something in the soul and life. 

The third step in the departure of the blessing 
is the loss of power. It begins to dawn upon the 
individual that his words are not as effective as 
formerly ; his prayers do not prevail ; his testimo- 
nies fail to move and convince, or his preaching is 
resultless. 

Here again we feel that we should spare the feel- 
ings of some truly sanctified people who are in 
difficult places and have little or no visible fruit 
and victories. It is well here to remember that Jesus 
Himself could do no mighty works in some places 
because of unbelief. Paul had a hard time at Athens, 
and there are families, churches, and communities 
to-day so set, crystallized and frozen that it will take 
the trumpet of the archangel Gabriel to arouse them. 

Yet with these recognized difficulties, there is 
a conscious power granted the sanctified man even 
in the hardest of places. He feels that his words are 
energized, that they are not altogether lost, that God 
is not only with him, but standing by him and work- 
ing through him. A man is as conscious of spiritual 
power as he is of physical strength. And that is not 
all, he is as conscious that this same spiritual force 



52 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

Is gone as that physical energy has departed. He 
may articulate loudly, speak impressively, toss back 
the hair, look upward, wave the hand and bring 
it down with force, but he fails, and the people recog- 
nize that that indefinable something called unction 
or power is gone. 

Finally, the blessing itself as a work of grace goes. 
We are not trying to split hairs in this description, but 
write what has been forced on our observation for 
years. We have seen men whose joy, liberty and 
power had gone, and yet they said they had some- 
thing left which regeneration had never brought them. 
One would suppose that if joy, freedom and power 
had left the heart, all would be gone. But they insist 
that there is still something left, that they feel purity 
or cleanness and a certain rest or quiet of spirit. 
Granting that what they say is true, yet this itself 
will likewise go, and the man be left with nothing but 
the memory that he was once sanctified. Purity and 
rest are the two marked features of the blessing, and 
when they are gone the soul is bereft, and Ichabod is 
not only felt, but read in the life. 

So it seems in God's mercy that the loss of the 
blessing is so marked by stages of decline, and de- 
clared by spiritual alarm bells, that any one can know 
what is going on, take the warning in time, fly 
to Christ and the cleansing blood, and so be prevented 



MAY BE LOST. 53 

from the calamity of losing the greatest blessing that 
God has for the soul. 

Certain it is that when lost, the soul is never happy 
again until it recovers it. There is nothing that 
can compensate for its loss. 

Nothing can fill the heart once occupied by Jesus. 
All substitutes for the rest and joy which an indwell- 
ing Christ brought are felt to be utter failures. 
Sanctification certainly spoils a man in a proper sense 
for this world. 

We should be thankful, then, that God holds 
out such warnings and signals along the way of 
departure, so that one can judge himself where he is. 
As first joy, then liberty, and then power is felt to be 
going, we are really listening to alarm bells rung by 
a faithful heavenly hand to arouse us, make us look 
backward and then upward for the pardoning, purify- 
ing and restoring grace that God for Christ's sake 
is always willing to give. 






-jhapter v. 

*HE BLESSING CAN BE RECOVERED, 

'"THERE is no doubt that the beautiful and restful 
grace of sanctification, which many have lost, can 
be possessed again. 

It may be difficult so to convince the erne whose 
heart is empty and aching from the spiritual bereave- 
ment that such may be the case, but it is none the 
less true. The mind is never more painfully fertile 
than at such a time to recall and construct arguments 
and illustrations to prove that the present wretched- 
ness must continue, that the loss is irreparable and 
there is and can be no hope. 

Moreover, it is the will of Satan whose devices 
are numerous and powerful to keep the soul in gloom 
with a view to its ultimate despair. 

One paralyzing thought he delights to urge upon 
the holiness backslider is that he has sinned against 
so much light, that there is and can be no pardon 
for the offense. That the very greatness of the bless- 
ing parted with constitutes the enormity of the sin. 

So tempest- tossed and bewildered is the backslider, 
that he overlooks the fact that Satan does not call 
attention to the magnitude of grace and the almighty 

54 



CAN BE RECOVERED. 55 

power of the Blood to cleanse. The great enemy 
is simply anxious for the soul to notice the depths of 
its fall without pointing it to the heights of salva- 
tion, nor gracious uplifting power of the Son of God. 
Happy is the man who at such a time will recall the 
verse, "Where sin has abounded, grace much more 
abounds.' ' The blessed thought should thrill us that 
Divine I^ove has stooped lower than man fell. " That 
earth has no sorrow which heaven can not cure." 

A second distressing thought presented to the 
wanderer at this time is the case of Esau. The 
Tempter gloats over the case as he reminds the man 
that the Bible itself says that although Esau sought 
his forfeited blessing "carefully with tears," he could 
not find it again. He does not tell the sorrowing one 
that this does not refer to the salvation of the soul, 
but to Esau's loss, through the sold birthright, of 
being in the Messianic line. Who believes that God 
would reject any one who came with tears and repent- 
ance asking forgiveness? A temporal blessing may 
indeed by one act of folly be finally lost, but departed < 
spiritual grace, thank God, can be recovered. 

A third discouraging quotation used by the morbid, 
disconsolate mind at this time, is taken from Hebrews 
x. 26: "For if we sin willfully after that we have 
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth 
no more sacrifice for sins." 

According to the way the unhappy heart would 



56 THE SANCTIFIED UFK. 

interpret this, no man who has ever sinned wilfully 
after his conversion can be pardoned. This fact is 
contradicted by daily observation, and by a gracious 
experience as well. The ground of fear here seems to 
be built on the words "sin wilfully/ ' when, so far as 
the writer can see, all sin is wilful. The definition 
of sin, with which we are all familiar, is that "Sin is 
the voluntary transgression of the divine law.' ■ If we 
do not intend, desire or will to do a wrong thing, the 
moral quality goes out of the deed, and we say in ex- 
planation that the act was done ignorantly or under 
compulsion. 

It occurs to the author that the main meaning 
of this verse is entirely overlooked by the spiritually 
lapsed man, and by many others as well. It does not 
say there is no more forgiveness of sins when we 
do wrong, but to the wilful sinner "there remaineth 
no more sacrifice for sin." In other words, there 
is but one Christ. There is no second Saviour or 
salvation to us who abuse the grace and provision 
of the atonement of Jesus. The wilful sinner who 
turns his back on Christ and goes on his ruinous 
course will find no more altars or sacrifices along 
the way. He must take Jesus, or be lost* There 
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. 

A still more distressing passage is brought up 
by the adversary in Heb. vi. 4-6 : " For it is impos- 
lible for those who were once enlightened, and have 



CAN BE RECOVERED. 57 

tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers 
of the Holy Ghost* and have tasted the good word 
of God and the powers of the world to come, if they 
shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ; 
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God 
afresh, and put him to an open shame.' * 

To this gloomy quotation we reply that the pas* 
sage refers not to the loss of sanctification, or even 
salvation, but to the fearful sin of apostasy. It was a 
dreadful thing in the time when Paul wrote, when the 
cause of Christ was small and struggling, for a 
man thus to act. It so shook the faith of thousands, 
that the act put him beyond the pale of mercy. The 
man's apostate life equalled a second crucifying of the 
Lord Jesus. 

That this is not the case of the backslider from 
justification or even sanctification, is evident to one 
who studies their lives, and marks their gloom 
and oftentimes crushing sorrow over departure from 
Christ. So far from feeling like M putting Christ to 
an open shame," they are ashamed of themselves. 
Nothing would be more impossible than for them 
to crucify the Saviour. We have heard some of them 
say that even if they should finally be lost they would 
go down to the pit believing in and loving Christ. 

The fact remains that the wanderer can come 
home. He that said to His disciples that as often 
as a trespassing brother should turn to them, even 



58 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

seven times in a day and say, " I repent/' and " thou 
shalt forgive him," will certainly be no less pitiful 
than the men He was instructing in mercy. 

The apostle said He had " compassion on the 
ignorant and on them that are out of the way/' 
There are many such to-day who are "out of the 
way," who once fairly blazed, and glorified God in it. 
Christ has compassion on them. He can bring them 
back, and they are welcome to return. 

Tell the backslider, says the I/>rd, " I am married 
unto him." Was there ever a tenderer message? 
Again he says, fl I will heal their backsliding. I will 
love them freely ; for mine anger is turned away from 
him." What more could be said? What more could 
be desired ? What better thing could be done ? 

So every wanderer can come back. And not only 
is this true, but backsliders from holiness do get back. 

If we had no other case than that of John Fletcher, 
this alone should inspire the heart of every despondent 
one with new hope. Read in the Life of Hester Ann 
Rogers his own testimony in regard to it: "I have 
received this blessing four or five times, but I grieved 
the Spirit of God by not making confession, and 
as often I let it go. I lost it by not observing 
and obeying the order of God who hath told us, ' With 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with 
the mouth confession is made unto salvation/ which 
latter I neglected." This lost blessing he recovered, 



CAN BE RECOVERED. 59 

and so he speaks again : " Now, my brethren, you see 
my folly. I have confessed in your presence, and 
now I resolve in your presence also, henceforth I will 
confess my Master to all the world. And I declare 
unto you in the presence of God, the Holy Trinity, I 
am now dead indeed unto sin," etc., etc. 

If Fletcher could get it back, then every one 
can who reads their lines. God has no favorites, 
and is without partiality or respect of persons. You 
may have sinned, but Christ is a greater Saviour 
than you are a sinner. You may have fallen low 
in hope, faith and life, but Christ can get underneath 
you and lift you up. 

The writer has gone all over in the United States 
in evangelistic labor. There has scarcely been a place 
but he found some man or woman who had lost 
this "pearl of great price,* • the blessing of entire 
salification. In different ways it had been forfeited. 
Sometimes it had been lost through failure t» testify 
publicly. Sometimes a fretting or fault-finding spirit 
had been indulged and Jesus left them. Sometimes 
they had been betrayed into sin. A number said 
that they did not know of anything especially wrong 
that they had done, but the blessing seemed to, 
11 leak out.' f 

With rare exceptions we saw these sad-faced, 
mute-tongued people recover the departed grace, and 
the word Ichabod was displaced for Ebenezer. 



6o THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

One we remember stood up at a large camp-meet* 
ing in New England and confessed the loss of the 
blessing. Iyooking at us with tear-filled eyes she said, 

" Bmpty is the nest 
Where the Dove had rest,** 

and sat down a picture of woe amid the general sym* 
pathy of the large audience. 3ut we all s^w the Dove 
come back to the nest that very week, and the sorrow- 
ful face was transfigured with light and joy. 

At another time we heard a gentleman in a testi- 
mony meeting lament his loss of the blessing. His 
words impressed all, and particularly one sentence 
Sank deep when he said: "I have not langhed 
in my heart for three years." What a picture of soul- 
sadness written in those simple but touching words. 
Sunlight, laughter, merriment, music all around him, 
yet his heart in the midst of it all had not laughed 
in three years ! But three days after that I saw him 
under the glorious light of the recovered blessing, 
when not only his heart but his lips were overflowing 
with laughter as well. 

In a Southern State we found a gentleman at 
the altar, bowed down in grief as well as in 
posture, seeking to find again the pearl of perfect 
love and rest he had lost. Day after day he was 
the first to come to the altar and the last to leave. 
But every line of the face showed hopelessness, and 
the voice itself had a despairing ring that eves 



CAN BE RECOVERED, 61 

affected strong, bouyant altar workers about him. 
One day the writer looking steadily at him said : 
4 'My brother, do you know why you are not able 
to get the blessing back? ■■ 

The man heaved a sigh, gave an upward look 
of questioning interest, and said: "No, I do not; 
what is it ?" 

The preacher laid his hand gently on the shoulder 
of the seeker and said kindly : ' * It is because you 
will not forgive yourself for having lost it." The 
head of the seeker instantly sank down on the altar 
before him, while the preacher added : " God is willing 
to forgive you. He says so in His Word ; but you will 
not forgive yourself." 

The preacher left him, for he had covered the 
case. The man saw the truth, felt it, and that very 
day " forgave himself," looked to Christ, touched the 
cleansing blood and swept back into the old-time light 
and gladness. 

Yes ; we can get the blessing back. I<et the heart- 
cheering truth be taken up with golden trumpets, 
silver bugles, beating drums and clashing cymbals. 
Let some angelic voice in the sky that can be heard 
all around the world cry out, "Though sin abounds 
yet grace much more abounds,'' and the whole 
race thunder out a hallelujah of thanksgiving as they 
gather from these words the possibility of return from 
all sin and spiritual loss and wandering unto God, 



62 THE SANCTIFIED I<IFE. 

Usually, the Saviour will be found where we left 
Him. If disobedience was the cause of the trouble, 
the thing to do is to begin to obey again. If the 
tongue has been silent, go to testifying. If anything 
has been taken from the altar, put it back, and 
then stand before the I/)rd, with tears, prayers, 
and the humble, patient, expectant waiting of faith 
until the fire falls. It will fall. God is faithful who 
has promised, and will not disappoint us. 

I^et it be remembered that the blessing was obtained 
at first through consecration, faith and prayer. If lost 
it can be regained by taking the same steps. Get on 
the altar ; it has not lost its power. Go to believing ; 
faith still unlocks the skies. Pray for the descending 
fire and witnessing Spirit. They are certain to come 
if we pray on and " pray through." 

We rejoice at the number we have seen get 
back into this blessing after a time of spiritual loss, 
and even darkness and falling into sin. How glad 
they were, how bright they looked, and how happy 
we all were to see them once more in the Inner Sanc- 
tuary called the Holiest, with its beautiful, perpetual 
light on their faces, its manna in their hearts, and 
the thick curtains of its spiritual stillness falling all 
about them. 

As an additional word of comfort to those who 
have been thus restored, we would say that we have 
noticed that when people recover this blessing, 



CAN BE RECOVERED. 63 

rfiey hold it with increased carefulness and faithful- 
ness. Knowing the value of the grace which had 
been lost ; knowing now better than ever before 
what it is to have a pure heart, a soul at rest with 
Christ abiding within, they now guard the treasure 
with a diligence and prayerfulness surpassing all 
the watchfulness and devotion of the past. 



CHAPTER VI 

HOW TO KEEP THE BLESSING. 

IN one sense the blessing of sanctification keeps 
us. Hence it is very properly called "the keeping 
blessing.' ' The constant indwelling of Christ, the 
easy exercise of faith, the rest fulness and inner stead- 
fastness of the experience, are all delightful features 
of the life, and contribute as well to its perpetuity. 

The statement that sanctification is more easily 
kept than regeneration, seems quite incredible to some 
people. They wonder how a higher life and deeper 
grace can be more easily retained than a less exalted 
experience. The explanation is that inbred sin, the 
disturbing factor and bosom foe of the regenerated 
man, is cast out in the work of sanctification. The 
internal war is over. The battle is now on the out- 
side. The life feels as if it was self-perpetuating. 
There is no fag or let-down in it, because Christ is ever 
in the heart. Brimful of holy energy it is always 
aggressive, and in addition has such unfoldings 
and disclosures of new strength and sudden develop- 
ments of power which thrill the possessor, and can 
only be explained by the indwelling presence of the 

Son of God. At once on awakening in the morning 
64 



BOW TO KKE* XT. 65 

the man feels the blessing stirring in his soul. With 
every call to duty there is felt a great reserve o! 
strength and a conscious adequacy for the occasion. 

Yet, of course, there are things for the sanctified 
individual to do, and which not to do would rank 
him with antinomians and fanatics and result dis- 
astrously and suicidally to the blessing. There are 
precautions and observance^ that must be seen to. 
We never get beyond the need of means of grace 
while in this world of probation. Self-denial, cross- 
bearing, watchfulness and prayer are to be practiced 
up to the portals of the tomb. To deny and neglect 
these things is to write ourselves down as moral idiots 
and bring danger and ruin upon the soul. 

The sweet grace of sanctification can be retained. 
Great and gracious as it is, there is no need of losing 
it. The author has enjoyed the experience for seven 
years. lie knows of a lady who has possessed it 
unbroker.xy for fifty years, and he heard an aged serv- 
ant of God say once that he had enjoyed it uninter- 
ruptedly for sixty-two years. 

But these people did something to preserve the 
grace. For just as neglecting to do certain things 
has caused the blessing to depart, so the doing of cer- 
tain things commanded us will retain the gracious 
experience. There are several things which, if ob- 
served and practiced, will prevent all spiritual lapse 



66 THK SANCTIFIED UF3. 

and plant the blessing in us like a towering and 
immovable mountain. 

The first is faith. We obtain sanctification by 
faith, but it is also retained by faith. Faith is the 
vital point of union with Christ, and, of course, Satan 
makes his strongest assaults at this point. If after the 
reception of the blessing he can make the soul doubt 
its presence or continuance, he at once secures a 
foothold again in the territory from which he was 
ejected, and will soon rob the heart of its birthright 
and treasure. 

It is noticeable that immediately after a person has 
received the witness of the Spirit to sanctification, the 
Adversary charges down upon the soul with his 
doubts. It is well for all such assaulted individuals 
to remember that just as soon as the Son of God 
received the anointing or baptism of the Holy Ghost 
on the banks of the Jordan, that he was immediately 
afterwards driven into the wilderness and there 
tempted forty days by the Devil. He conquered 
by faith and in the use of the Word of God. We can 
do the same. 

The writer made this discovery on the second 
day of his sanctification. He found that under the 
heavy pressure of dark spirits he kept sweet and 
•till in soul by exercising faith and repeating a 
number of times through the time of spiritual trial the 
words, "The blood cleanseth me from all sin," 



HOW TO KKEP IT. t*7 

and, f * The altar sanctifieth the gift. ' ■ This quiet exer- 
cise of faith kept the experience as steady in the soul 
as a fixed star is in the heaven. He never forgot the 
victory nor the lesson learned at that time. He found 
that a quiet, persistent faith will either keep in check 
or throw off the gloomy and dark influences of Satan 
as a mountain wall casts off the waves of the sea. 
That it was a tonic protecting from the malaria 
of doubt. He discovered that the simple repeating of 
certain passages of God's Word as quoted above had a 
strange strengthening effect upon the heart and vital- 
ized the spirit of faith itself. He saw that there was 
a wonderful reacting influence on each other, the 
Word on the faith and the faith on the Word. Faith 
grew stronger by repeating passages of Scripture, and 
the Word became sweeter and stronger in its meaning 
under the increasing faith. In short, he found that 
Satan is powerless to despoil the soul of the pearl 
of great price so long as that soul believes God sancti- 
fies it. That when a man drives a stake down here 
and says, Alabama, "Here we rest," he does rest, 
and the Adversary has to stand with impotent rage 
and see the smiling child of God with head anointed, 
cup running over and eating joyously in the presence 
of his enemies, whether they be terrestrial or infernal. 
Many of those who have lost the blessing make 
the confession, "I got to doubting." Who wonders 
at the loss? As Faith is the condition of the reception 



68 TH3 SANCTIFIED UFK. 

aud retention of grace, then, of course, Doubt, which 
is its opposite, is the way to lose all we have. All sin 
and spiritual lapse is preceded by doubt. It opens the 
door to Satan and he rushes in to sow tares in the 
wheat, and possess the house again which had been 
swept and garnished. 

But faith keeps the door of the heart ; faith retains 
the grace and presence of God, and makes it impossi- 
ble for the devil to do his work. And so the just not 
only shall, but do, live by faith. 

A friend of the writer was sanctified one day, and 
three days afterward the powers of darkness came 
down upon him and the Satanic whisper was fairly 
hissed into his soul : " You know you are not sancti- 
fied." But this time the great Enemy bore down 
upon one who was ready and able through grace to 
meet him. His reply was, "Is that so? Then if I 
am not sanctified, here goes again. My all is on the 
altar ; the altar sanctifies the gift. I am the gift and. 
therefore, I am sanctified. Hallelujah ! " And lo J as 
suddenly as he came Satan left him. 

From a lady friend he did not so soon depart. 
For several days after she received the witness of the 
Spirit to her sanctification the devil violently assailed 
her. Passing her several times during the time of her 
faith trial we saw the hunted, distressed and puzzled 
look in her eyes. She could not understand why this 
tight spiritual pressure should be cm her, She did 



HOW TO KEEP IT. 69 

not remember that after the glorious experience on 
the banks of Jordan came the wilderness trial to 
Christ. There was no time to talk with her, so I gave 
her an encouraging smile and grasp of the hand, 
saying, ' ' All will be well ; hold on by faith.' p She did 
hold on, quietly exercising a childlike trust until sud- 
denly the Saviour appeared, scattered her tormentors, 
and angels came and ministered unto her. She ob- 
tained the lesson of her life, and to-day has no trouble 
in going through these character tests, but moves 
calmly and brightly through them all like a star 
through the night. 

It is wonderful how quickly the lesson of faith 
is learned which retains the experience of holiness. 
At first it may be an effort to exercise the belief and 
go on repeating the Word of God, especially when the 
joy of the soul may have run low or departed. But 
in a few hours or days one becomes established in the 
grace, there is a spirit or whisper of trust in the heart, 
and the soul settles down with a delightful sense 
of recumbency upon the love, power and protecting 
care of the Son of God. 

It is now that the man sees the tremendous force 
of faith as by it he retains the greatest experience 
of the Christian life. He can now mentally exer- 
cise it. It seems to be the breath of his soul 
and is exhaled like breath. Instead of words being 



70 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

uttered, the thought itself is uppermost, " The blood 
cleanses me," " Jesns sanctifies me." 

Still, while it may be hard at times to repeat those 
passages of God's Word which bear upon the soul- 
cleansing power of the blood, yet there is peculiar 
blessedness in such oral testimony and confession of 
the lips. In our own experience we have never had to 
repeat such words as '■ The blood cleanses me," " The 
altar sanctifies me," "Jesus saves me now, M more 
than the third time before feeling the sense of victory 
in the soul, and hearing an inward hallelujah voiced 
by the answering Spirit who thus assured us that 
all was well. 

The expression " exercising faith" means much. 
But it is a simple truth for all the blessedness it brings. 
Men know what it is to exercise their lungs and arms 
and body, but seem bewildered when we tell them to 
exercise faith. If we exercise the voice or limbs we 
use them. So to exercise faith we use it, trot it out, 
whirl it around, and propel it upward. Every effort 
makes it easier to do, and from uttering the words, 
"The blood cleanses," "Jesus sanctifies me," the 
soul gets so that, as we said before, it actually thinks 
these sentences of life. The heart literally broods 
on the atoning blood, and a feeling of trust encom- 
passes the life like the mountains stand about 
Jerusalem. 

One night at a preaching service we noticed the 



HOW TO KEEP IT. 71 

minister, who was a sanctified man, with head bowed 
and lips moving. It was during a protracted meeting 
and was one of those times when the air seemed 
to be full of evil spirits. The congregation appeared 
frozen, and the very atmosphere depressing. We 
thought that the preacher was praying, as we observed 
the motion of his lips and caught indistinct whispers. 
After the service was over we asked him if this was 
not the case. His reply was : 

11 No ; I was not praying. 11 

" What, then, were you doing? •• 

With the greatest seriousness and a tone that 
deeply impressed us he replied : 

" I was exercising faith ! M 

In a flash, then, I saw what a battle he had 
been going through ; and that there in the pulpit 
he had met the devil and whipped him out by 
whispering passages of the Word of God and by 
the exercise of faith. There was a great victory 
that night in the sermon and at the altar, and this 
was the way it was won. What this brother did 
in the meeting and vanquishing of the difficulties 
of that night, we are to do with every spiritual trial 
and doubt flung in our way by men and devils. We 
are to bclirue through them into light. 

Let no man who ever saw a person flash a lantern 
up a dark alley and make it a path of light from 
end to end, say he does not know what it is to 



72 THE SANCTIFIED UPS. 

exercise faith. It is to throw a headlight of belief on 
God's Word and work through a tunnel of spiritual 
gloom. It bores its way through the devil's sugges- 
tions and lies. It turns an X-ray on a wall of dark 
circumstance and reveals God on the other side. It 
steadily refuses to doubt the statement of God's Word 
and the witness of His Spirit. It says that light or no 
light, sensation or no sensation, feeling or no feeling, 
knowledge or no knowledge, when God says a thing 
is so, it is so. That this settles the matter finally 
and forever. 

We fail to see how Satan can find entrance, much 
less be able to rob the soul of its greatest treasure 
when such a faith stands guard with unsleeping vigil- 
ance at the door. This is the victory that over- 
cometh low spirits, a sinking heart, whispers of the 
devil and all the discouragements of this lower world — 
even our faith. 

The second thing necessary to keep the blessing of 
sanctification is obedience. 

Faith is the heart condition, obedience is the life 
condition. If there is true faith within there will 
be obedience to God without. They walk together 
and they go down together. When faith fails dis- 
obedience sets in. When obedience fails faith sickens 
and will die if the course is persisted in. 

When consciously disobedient to God faith feels 
paralyzed for the time, and the lips seem unable 



HOW TO KEEP IT. 73 

to frame the words, "The blood cleanses ine now 
from all sin." 

We do not mean to say that the blessing of sancti- 
fication is lost by one small act of disobedience, 
or by two or three such. We certainly believe 
that by a single act of murder or adultery the blessing 
would be forfeited. But there are failures of duty 
that may not be compared to these two sins. Grave 
as is any act of disobedience be it small or great in its 
nature, yet we can not believe that God suddenly 
leaves a man forsaken and cursed for one such omis- 
sion or commission. We believe that sanctification, 
like regeneration, as a rule, departs gradually. As 
the light fades out of the sky, so the glory leaves 
the soul. First joy goes, then liberty, and then 
the testimony. The man has become dumb. Satan 
has again locked the lips, the daughters of music are 
gone, and the old heart burden has come back. The 
blessing has leaked out, as some of them say. Yes, 
and it leaked out through acts of disobedience. 

Disobedience is a grave thing. We know a lady 
now eighty years of age who says that she deliberately 
disobeyed God fifty years ago, after having been 
a sanctified woman for several years. She says that 
while God forgave her and she has not lost the bless- 
ing, yet her sanctified experience has never been the 
same. We believe that she has allowed Satan to keep 
her crushed down by this memory, when the atone- 



74 *HB SANCTIFIED UF*. 

ment covers the whole thing and she should have gone 
free ; bat the fact that the memory of the act has 
so burdened her all through life shows the gravity of 
a single deed of disobedience. If we would keep the 
blessing of sanctification we must obey God. His Word 
must be kept. We can not violate His commandments. 
We must hearken to His calls and follow His leadings. 
He can unmistakably impress His will upon us, and if 
we do it not, we will be certain to get into trouble. 

We do not mean that every impression that comes 
to the mind is of God. Some of them are so far from 
being of heaven that we will please God by not paying 
any attention to them. He says, "My sheep know 
my voice," and that voice will sound in His Word, 
in His Providence, and in the whisper of the Spirit to 
the heart, guiding, restraining, teaching and leading. 

We must obey God. What a joy it brings to the 
soul to be thus consciously submissive and doing the 
whole will of God. What a ring to the voice and 
what an added power to the life it brings. Satan feels 
helpless before a man with faith in heart and perfect 
obedience to God in life. In a word, we must M trust 
and obey, M and in doing so will be invincible. 

There is a lovely little hymn which bears the name 
" Trust and Obey. ' ' The chorus runs, — 

••Trust and obey 

For there *s no other way, 
To be happy in Jeiua 
But to trust and obey." 



how to uxr XT. 73 

Neither is there any other way to retain the grace of 
sanctification but by this same Faith and Obedience. 

The third essential is seen in "The Blood." The 
instant there is a conscious spiritual hurt we should 
fly to the blood of Christ and claim its immediate 
application. It is better not to lose time in argument or 
inquiry as to whether the act was wrong or not which 
brought the disturbed state of mind and heart. Better 
fly at once to the blood, obtain the instantaneous cleans- 
ing, and settle the other matters afterward. 

Few realize the ever-present power of the blood of 
Christ. It "cleanseth/' says John. It cleanses in- 
stantly, and it cleanses now, the very moment we 
claim its virtue by faith. 

There is no need to be in condemnation a moment 
in case of sins of ignorance and surprise. The blood 
is available every second. Even in matters of graver 
nature, it is through lack of knowledge of the present 
power of the blood, that makes the man postpone his 
soul cleansing and recovery until certain mental agon- 
ies. fervent supplications and physical humiliations 
shall have been gone through with. 

The Bible does not say that the blood and some- 
thing else cleanseth, but The Blood! So, if the world 
to-day would renounce its beads, pilgrimages, and 
works of righteousness, and look to the blood of 
Christ, it would be saved. If Christians would turn 
their gaze from the thought of growth, development 



76 THK SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

and church work to the purifying blood of Jesus, the 
heart purity or holiness they desire would be instantly 
given. If sanctified people who have lapsed more or 
less in the sanctified life, and are trying to work their 
way back into the old-time favor and honor of Heaven 
would only look to "The Blood/ * they would find 
themselves instantly healed, restored, cleansed, fiiled 
and fired again. 

In recognition of possible weakness, mistakes and 
missteps ; in view of the fact that some fiery dart 
of the evil one may pierce the Christian armor, God 
has provided the ever-present, ever-powerful, ever- 
cleansing blood of Christ. The instant that the soul 
is wounded it should fly at once, without the loss of a 
second, to the Saviour, and cry, Lord Jesus, apply thy 
blood ; and it should stay at His feet until it is done. 

This is not Antinomianism, abusing the grace of 
God, and sinning that mercy might abound ; but a 
proper faith that comes at once to the Saviour when 
betrayed into sin. The spirit that would tarry and 
bemoan the past with profitless groans and paralyzed 
dctivities is not that which is enjoined in the Bible. 
It is not the act that most exalts God and His plan 
for our redemption. 

That which honors Christ and His salvation is the 
immediate return to the I^ord in case of departure, and 
the instant appropriation of the blood which cleanses 
through and through, and now, and for evermore. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOME FEATURES OF THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

'"THERE is such a life. We are ushered into it on 
compliance with the conditions of consecration 
and faith, that stand like a great portal, barring out 
and yet opening in. With the experience of an 
instantaneous sanctification rushing into the soul, the 
sanctified life begins. 

Of course there is skepticism with some about the 
individuality and distinctiveness of the life ; but 
this doubting comes from those who have not gone 
through the portal. One can not know how a garden 
really looks until he enters the gate and strolls down 
the walks. He may have had descriptions and so 
formed ideas, but all know how every description 
comes short of the reality ; and the road, lane, field, 
city, or landscape that has been portrayed with pen or 
tongue is always different from the mental conception 
when we see it. 

Men may smile as they will over the statement 
that the sanctified life or experience differs from that 
of regeneration, but such smiles can not and do not 
alter facts. These persons in their derision simply 
show that they have not li entered in. M 



78 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

Every life different from our own is necessarily a 
mystery. A worm is a tiny thing, and men may 
write learnedly about its sensations, but the fact 
remains that most of what is written is mere conject- 
ure. The only way to know how a worm feels is to 
become a worm. So a bird can be held in or crushed 
by the hand. Some persons have written volumes 
on the habits and feelings of birds. But all written is 
the opinion of a being on the outside of the little song- 
ster. He can not know how a bird feels; to do 
that he must become a bird. 

In like manner we study the angels. Much has 
been said about them, but how little is really known 
of their habits, labors, and joys? We have to study 
them from the outside. They constitute a different 
order of beings from the human race, and are never to 
become men and women, just as we are never to 
become angels. We may affect great wisdom in writ- 
ing about this heavenly order, but, after all, it is 
merely speculation. The only way to know how an 
angel feels is to become an angel. 

The unconverted man looks at the regenerated man 
and thinks he understands him. He hears the Chris- 
tian say that he " feels good and happy," and his 
reply is, " So do I." It would be very hard to con- 
vince him that the good feeling of the child of God 
runs on spiritual lines, while his moves on the physi- 
cal. This very explanation would fail to explain to 



SOME FEATURES. 79 

him or convince him. His idea of "feeling good" 
is mainly animal. He has, for instance, eaten a hearty 
meal, and now in dressing robe and slippers, stretched 
in an easy chair, cigar in mouth, he sits in lazy, dream- 
ing mood, looking into the fire. He says he M feels 
good " ; but any one can say that the entire sensation 
is purely animal. That it is a puppy- dog enjoyment, 
a cat-on-the-rug contentment. The child of God tells 
him that if he repents and believes on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, he will have a good feeling to sweep through 
the soul so much purer, better and nobler, that the 
other would not be worthy to be mentioned in the same 
breath. 

Is it not strange that a regenerated man who can 
see these things, and can recognize the error of the un- 
converted in this matter should fall into a similar mis- 
take when he sits in criticism and judgment on the life 
of the sanctified man ? He hears him give his experi- 
ence, and straightway asserts that he has all that the 
sanctified man possesses. Of course the person who 
has had the baptism of the Holy Ghost knows better, 
but is equally well aware that no human word or 
power can convince the converted man to the contrary ; 
that this is the work of God. It takes the Holy 
Ghost, with the Word, to divide soul and spirit, joints 
and marrow, discern the depths of the heart, expose 
inbred sin, and reveal in startling light the difference 
between the two works of grace. So the sanctified 



80 tnn SANCTIFIED UF». 

simply says in reply to the regenerated man that if he 
consecrates perfectly, believes unwaveringly, and prays 
importunately that the fire will fall and he will know 
for Himself this secret of the Lord, which only the 
Lord can reveal. In other words, • ' If any man will do 
His will He shall know of the doctrine." Thus while 
it takes the Holy Ghost to convince him as He illum- 
ines the mind and reveals the deep things of God ; 
still it is the duty of the sanctified man to stand firm 
for his experience and emphasize the distinctiveness 
and superiority of the work of grace. God will use 
that humble, faithful testimony not only for the good 
of the testifier, but make it "light sown for the right- 
eous" which, under the divine blessing, will yet 
spring up in the conviction and purification of the 
believer. 

There is then such a thing as the sanctified experi- 
ence. There is, thank God, a sanctified life. It must 
be so recognized by the honest observer, and it is felt 
with thrills of joy by the possessor himself, who knows 
better than any one else its marked contrast to the 
former religious experience, and its blessed superi- 
ority at every point. 

A volume might be written here, but we content 
ourselves with calling attention to several features of 
what we call the sanctified life or experience. 

Perhaps the prominent feature is inward rest. 
The soul has been stilled and remains still, The spirit 



SOME FEATURES. 8 1 

of worry is gone. There is a sweet disinclination to 
fret. An atmosphere of calm pervades the breast and 
penetrates the life. It abides steadily through the 
day, no matter what that day holds for us in the 
shape of labor, burdens, unpleasant people, and trying 
circumstances. There is no delight over the trying 
circumstances themselves, but a restfulness of soul in 
spite of them. Paul did not give thanks for every- 
thing, but said: "In everything give thanks/ • It 
certainly would be a novel experience to many Chris- 
tians to begin and end the day calmly ; to wake up in 
the morning with a sweet serenity of spirit, and to go 
through each new day with a deep, still peace, whose 
steady flow delights as well as astonishes him. And yet 
this is the plain promise of God, ' ' Quietness and assur- 
ance forever," and this is the experience of a great 
and ever-increasing number in the land. One of these, 
a lady friend, said to the author : -l I am kept amazed 
at the inward rest and stillness of my soul. I never 
dreamed there was such a sweet peace for me, and I 
am disposed to wonder if there can be any mistake 
about it all. Ought I not to be more concerned 
about different things ; and where is the ecstatic joy 
I felt in the first few weeks of the blessing? " She, 
in other words, under that word "concerned" was 
marveling over the absence of the old "fret" that 
used to be in her, and also failed to see that the great 
peace she now had was simply joy boiled down, 



8 a THE SANCTIFIED UFH. 

A second feature is that of a spirit of praise. Every 
child of God is conscious of this at times, but there are 
serious gaps and intervals when it is not felt. More- 
over, the hour when it is realized, as a rule, in the 
regenerated life is one which abounds in helps and 
external causes of inspiration. All is going on well in 
the individual heart/family circle and church life. The 
meeting is being blessed, the work is succeeding, and 
faith has turned to sight. Well in body, well in soul, 
and everybody around us well — now, then, let us 
praise God. We simply ask here who could not 
do so under such circumstances? 

The gift and grace we speak of under this head is 
a spirit of praise which abides in the soul under all cir- 
cumstances. The inner bubbling of gladness is felt 
not simply when all is well, but when things are not 
well. It gushes up in the face of coldness, opposition, 
detraction, and wrong. It sings in spite of loneliness, 
and pain of heart and body. It praises God in the 
face of apparent failure. It can be cast off by loved 
ones and separated from the company of friends, and 
yet keep rejoicing. It can walk around the walls of 
Jericho thirteen times without seeing a crack, and yet 
shout. It can be unjustly condemned, whipped, put 
in a dungeon, and behold ! at midnight it will burst 
into hosannas. It can, and does, cry hallelujah at all 
times. 

The first two sanctified preachers the writer met 



SOME FEATURES. 83 

impressed him with this spirit of rejoicing. He heard 
them say repeatedly in the Conference room and else- 
where : " Glory to God!" "Praise the I/>rd!" 
"Hallelujah!" This spirit, life and language was 
beyond the author of this book at that time, and his 
judgment of the phenomenon was that these utterances 
had first been genuine, but by frequent repetition had 
become mechanical, and that nothing but the expres- 
sion of a mental habit was now before him ; or, in other 
words, here were parrot-like utterances in the religious 
life. Two years after the writer obtained the same 
blessing possessed by these men of God, and found to 
his delight and astonishment that it w T as not a parrot 
at all, but a nightingale singing its very heart out on 
a rose bush in a moonlight night. He found there 
was a blessing which, when received in the soul, 
bubbles up in a tender holy joy, wreathes the lips with 
smiles, puts a shine on the face, a sparkle in the eye, 
and issues from the tongue in words and expressions 
of praise. 

The wife of a minister received the blessing of 
sanctification in a gracious meeting held by the writer. 
She had been soundly converted, and was a faithful 
worker in the church. But she felt that disposition 
within to fret and worry over household and other 
matters. The sound of a dog barking at night was 
especially objectionable and trying to her. She called 
it nervousness. The night following the day she 



84 *H« SANCTIFIED LIFK. 

received the blessing she could not sleep for the happi- 
ness which filled her. She said that the watch dog 
seemed possessed that night and barked for hours, but 
with her joy-attuned nature she heard the sound with 
new ears ; the discordant sound was gone, and the dog 
seemed to say, " Praise God!" M Praise God!*' 
Next morning while in the kitchen arranging things 
for breakfast she, by an unwitting movement of the 
hand, brought down a whole pile of tin and iron ves- 
sels with a great clash and clatter. Two days before 
it would have been intolerable and upsetting ; but with 
the holy joy and praise now welling up richly in her 
soul, she clapped her hands and cried out with shining 
face, M O the music ! O the music ! ' ' 

A third feature in the life of the sanctified is the 
blessed consciousness of a perfect love. Perfect not 
in the sense that it may not grow stronger and more 
intense as the years go by, but perfect as regards the 
absence of things contrary to love imbedded in the 
heart. It is a pure love. The former temporary 
hates, jealousies, envyings and bitterness toward cer- 
tain people are all gone. A gentle, tender, loving 
feeling is in the heart for all men. This does not 
mean that we love all alike. This would be unnatural 
and impossible. There is a general love for the whole 
Race, peculiar affections for those naturally near to us, 
and special likings and attachments to others, who, by 
nature, temperament and character, draw us toward 



SOME FEATURES. 85 

them. Yet to all different classes there is felt a 
pure, genuine love, although the love may vary in 
character and intensity. 

On the Godward side we are thrilled to discover 
that the love we now bear Him is not now mixed as 
it had formerly been, and is supreme at all times. It 
is sweet and blessed beyond words to describe, to feel 
the perfect love for God nestling in and warming the 
heart continually. King David is on his throne, the 
Absalom of rival affections is dead, and the kingdom 
within lies all fair, peaceful and beautiful, without 
a note of discord and a sign of insurrection. 

Such a condition of soul, is found in its tenderness 
to all people, to prevent the fault-finding and uncharit- 
able speech ; while the same tongue in speaking of 
God and things divine almost insensibly, and yet 
naturally, is drawn into simple, unaffected and rever- 
ential language. Cheerfulness takes the place of 
levity, kindness displaces harshness, and from the lips 
that once found fault with God and assailed man, 
come the breathings of the loyal soul that find utter- 
ance in praises and ejaculations of love to God, and 
fervent "God bless yous" to the children of men. 
And it abides. The fitfulness or fluctuation seen in 
the regenerated life is no more. The blessed experi- 
ence is that of being fixed, grounded, rooted, settled 
in love. 

A fourth feature is the working spirit, or desire 



86 THE SANCTIFIED IJFE. 

and effort to do good. The instant the disciples re* 
ceived this grace they flew to the fields and vineyards 
of God. Two thousand years after I saw the same 
blessing fall upon a lady at the altar. I heard her 
cry, "0 my husband ! M saw her spring to her feet, 
rush into the audience, seize hold of the now tremend- 
ously convicted man, lead him to the altar, and in an 
agony of prayer and triumph of faith lay hold now on 
God, and behold ! salvation came down. The two 
works between that of the disciples and this woman 
was different in regard to magnitude of operations, but 
the same spirit was at work. Not all are called to 
public work, but those who have this blessing find 
work to do, and gladly do it. They feel strangely 
and powerfully wound up to do it. It may be laid 
out by the divine hand in a very obscure corner or re- 
stricted sphere ; it may be a simple enduring at times, 
and which will be a doing of the highest order ; it may 
be a marching to-day and a standing still to-morrow. 
God knows, and He will direct, and the sanctified soul 
will obey. The spirit of the working Christ abiding 
in us is bound to lead out in words and deeds that 
will bless the world in some way, and help to restore 
the departed Paradise. 

Figures of a wound up and going machine, steam 
pulsating in cylinders, and the prophetic description 
of fire burning in the bones come to the mind in de- 
scribing this divinely inspired activity. The curve of 



SOMfc FEATURES, 87 

the bow, the tautness of the string, the poise of the 
arrow, the coil of the spring are all felt when truly 
filled and empowered of God in sanctification. Such 
an one can not be idle. In some way, in small things or 
in great things, and in his or her own line and way, 
the sanctified person must and will work for God, 

A striking feature about it is that this work does 
not seem to exhaust. The soul remains fresh. There 
is a bouyancy felt throughout which delights the worker 
and gives moral force to the performance in the eyes of 
beholders. The soul is never so full of rest as when 
engaged in this unfailing activity for heaven. 

We remember a Bible picture of the seraphim, 
where they are represented with wings in swift move- 
ment, while their bodies were motionless. It is a 
striking illustration of the two- fold experience of work 
and rest in the sanctified life. High pressure work 
of brain and body, and profound calm and rest of soul. 
The man works now for God as he never did before, 
but he also rests at the same time with a depth and 
sweetness equally remarkable. 

A fifth feature of the life is the delightful con- 
sciousness of being kept. It is difficult, if not impos- 
sible, to bend any set of words around the circle of 
this experience, or find sentences that can penetrate 
the intricacies of the grace as it affects the heart and 
life. Like a road has to be traveled to be known, so 
must the soul journey on this delightful way tokmowof 



88 TH* SANCTIFIED UFB. 

what we are speaking. Possession of the blessing is the 
only key to the understanding of this gracious mystery . 

The author had read the word in the Bible, " Kept 
by the power of God/ 9 and had heard it used by some 
who had a strange, sweet light on their faces, and a 
glad, exultant ring in their voices, but he failed to 
comprehend what they were talking about until at 
last he finally became an "overcomer" and obtained 
the " white stone, and in the stone a new name 
written, which no man knoweth saving he that re- 
ceived it." 

A kept life ! Figures of restfulness, repose and 
protection arise at once to the mind ; a child in the 
arms of its mother, a sealed fountain, a walled city, 
and yet all fail to measure up descriptively to this 
strange, sweet experience of the sanctified soul, that 
we call being "kept." It is a spiritual sensation as 
distinct as the feeling of pardon. It sustains all through 
the trying hours of the day, is the last thing felt in the 
heart as we fall asleep, and the first realized in the 
soul on awakening in the morning. If this was the 
only feature of sanctification, it would pay ten thousand 
times over to obtain the blessing. 

This chapter is a condensed statement of some 
of the features of the sanctified life. No one can 
lead them without seeing it is a distinct experience ; 
and any one hearing of such a life should never be 
content until he came into the same blessedness. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THB LONKUNBSS OF THE LIFE, 

'"FHERE are many paradoxes in the spiritual life 
In the expression, ''Alone, yet not alone/' we 
find one of them. 

The Saviour was in one sense the most solitary of 
men, and yet in another he was not lonely. He said 
to His disciples at one time, " Will ye also go away V 9 
and then added that he was not alone, for the Father 
was with Him. He who was in unbroken intercourse 
with the Father, and had angels ascending and de- 
scending upon him, never knew such a thing as men 
do of the heaviness of his own company or the oppres- 
siveness of solitude. He was adjusted by His perfect 
life and nature to every condition and surrounding, 
and was full of rest everywhere. 

The sanctified life being God-centered, and having 
Christ abiding within, satisfying every longing of the 
heart, can not be lonely in the sense that men use the 
term. Ennui is impossible with a soul full of the 
Holy Ghost. Every minute has its charm, every 
occurrence brings or is made to bring a blessing, the 
day has its glory, the night its songs, solitude its 
sweetness, and God is seen and felt in everything. 



90 THE SANCTIFIED UF3. 

The old-time necessity, forcing one to take hat or 
bonnet and run off in social gossip to get rid of an 
hour or two that hangs heavily on their hands, becomes 
an unknown experience. The social life is not de- 
spised nor given up, for Duty still calls in this direc- 
tion, but the visit is now undertaken in a new spirit, 
and one's room or home is not left because its stillness 
and quiet can not be borne. 

The sanctified life is not lonely in the true and 
high sense of the word. It brings a spiritual and 
heavenly companionship that made Patmos an ante- 
chamber of heaven to John, turned a bastile dungeon 
into a place of beauty and glory to Madam Guy on, 
and transforms the room of the invalid into a sanctu- 
ary of rest, fanned with angel wings and lighted up 
with the smile of Christ. 

But in another sense the sanctified life is lonely. 
As viewed by the world it is painfully lonely, but 
as felt by the sanctified person himself it is lonely 
without painfulness. 

There is a growing recognition of the fact of this 
separation and solitariness and a consequent shrinking 
from the experience upon the part of some, and an 
endeavor to so shift, change and adjust the life as to 
deliver the individual from that same dreaded feature 
of loneliness. This, of course, is done mainly by 
those who have not received the grace of sanctifica- 
tion, and so can not understand it. But there are 



I/DNBUNESS OF THE UFB. 91 

also those who have entered "into the holiest* ■ and 
have not studied the truth itself and its relations and 
demands as they should. So they are found in their 
efforts trying to win, conciliate, and keep up old 
relations, to improve Bible nomenclature and to fill up 
chasms dug between men in the spiritual life by the 
Holy Ghost. The result of this has been disastrous to 
the experience they professed. They regained their 
old company and associations, but they lost the bless- 
ing. They wanted to bring it from its marble pillar of 
flagellation, from its solitary position of suspicion and 
rejection, from its star-like shining far above the 
flaring candles of earth, but in doing this the blessed 
Form disappeared, the star vanished, and the glory 
went out. 

We might as well come to the knowledge of the 
Truth, act accordingly, and be saved any more failures 
of a heart-breaking nature. If we want this swan of 
the skies to sing and float high in our hearts, we must 
not try to make it like the other fowls in the barn- 
yard. We must take it as it is. It is a blessing 
beyond all price in value, it is a life the sweetest of 
all under the sun, but coupled with this is the feature 
of a peculiar loneliness. We had better not divide 
asunder that which God hath joined together. 

I,et it be understood once for all that the loneliness 
we speak of is not a Pharisee separatism which holds 
itself better, and will have nothing to do with other 



92 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

classes of religious people. Nor is it the exclusiveness 
of a hide-bound bigotry, nor a timid shrinking from 
all social life, nor the repetition of the ghastly mistake 
of the Dark Ages, when the church judged that the 
highest piety could not be developed in the daily 
walks of life and hence removed to the shadows and 
silence of the monastery and convent. 

No such unnatural, unhealthy and un-Christian 
loneliness is taught by the Bible and wanted by the 
world. The genuinely sanctified man is a social man 
in the best sense of the word. He is in touch and 
sympathy with all classes of people, and, like his Lord, 
is found in the market-places as well as the synagogue, 
and, like Him, always doing good. 

The loneliness we speak of is to be found in other 
directions. 

First, sanctification has to be sought in a solitary 
way, or isolation from the world for the time being. 

The disciples separated themselves from every 
pursuit and from the noise and rush of roads and 
streets and came together in the quiet of the Upper 
Room. Even then it was ten days before the holy 
fire descended. What if they had not thus specially 
removed themselves and given the undivided attention 
and desire of mind and heart to God. Then it is 
certain we would never have heard of Pentecost, at 
least through them. 

Jacob in the obtainment of the Peniel Blessing 



I.ONEUNESS OF THE UFE. 93 

went out by himself on the brookside. Afar off he 
could see the twinkling camp-fires, where wives, chil- 
dren and servants rested unconscious of the suffering 
and sorrowing man who wept and struggled alone all 
through the long hours of that starlit Syrian night. 

It is not only well to be isolated at such a time, but 
necessary to obtain the revelation of the deep things 
of God. His voice is "a still small voice," and is 
not heard in its clearness amidst the world's loud 
talking, laughter and rush after money and pleasure. 
Certain instincts of the soul lead us away from the 
street into the sanctuary, or closet of prayer. And 
even when in a company of believers, like the case 
of the disciples, there must be a sinking away from 
each other and from every surrounding, a separation 
unto Christ alone, in the fulfillment of the prophet's 
words, when he says, M Each one mourned to himself 
apart." 

We are confident that the difficulty with many in 
obtaining the blessing of sanctification is right here. 
They are not willing to be alone long enough for God 
to search them, and show them " the ground of their 
heart," the dark principle within, which when 
Isaiah saw in the stillness of the Temple while waiting 
on the Lord, made him cry out, " I am undone." 

It pays to wait in solitariness before God. And 
garrets, cellars, barns/ and the silent grove looking 
down upon kneeling and prostrate figures have wit- 



94 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

nessed revelations of divine glory that myriads of 
our cathedral churches know nothing of. 

Again, the very announcement of the fact that you 
are seeking sanctification will produce a remarkable 
falling away of friends and acquaintances. The lone- 
liness is now not only that of your seeking God in 
privacy, but a solitarism made by people holding them- 
selves aloof from you in mingled doubt, pity and 
wonder as to the final outcome of your present pro- 
ceedings. 

But for Gospel explanation this social withdrawal 
would be as mysterious as crushing. He that seeks 
sanctification asks only for Christ. He sees that 
11 Jesus only " is necessary for happiness, and seeks 
alone for Him. He has found that business, pleasure, 
marriage, money, children, position, honor, travel, 
having all been tried, fail to satisfy the soul. The 
aching void is left in the heart. He now wants 
Jesus only. 

This simplification of life, this one desire left out 
of thousands, lifts the man away from the every-day 
thought and practice of men. It constitutes a philoso- 
phy that is at present beyond them. Being past their 
comprehension they fall into the mistake that the 
anxious faced seeker before them is in an abnormal, 
unhealthy state of mind, in a word, deluded, and 
can only bring ridicule and failure on himself, and 
drag them with him into the maelstrom of public 



tONEIJNESS OF THE UFB. 95 

remark and judgment, if they are seen to be identified, 
associated with or in anyway connected with him. 
Hence in a figurative way the hands are washed, 
the skirts are shaken, and the feet walk off with 
those worldly, sensible heads. And from a safe 
and respectable distance, rows of cool-looking eyes 
are turned critically, deprecatingly and pityingly upon 
the religious phenomenon before them at the altar, 
who wants Jesus and Jesus only. They hear him 
say he is willing to give up things that they know 
to be perfectly proper and legitimate ; that he sur- 
renders so excellent a thing as reputation, which 
required them twenty to forty years to build up ; that 
he is willing to be misunderstood, abused, slandered 
and rejected by friends, family and church itself, if 
necessary ; in a word, they hear uttered many things 
which, in their earthly wisdom and cool, level-headed 
judgment and good horse sense they pronounce extrav- 
agant, if not fanatical, and so with many misgivings 
and shakings of the head they leave the man to 
himself. 

Still again, the reception of the blessing of sancti- 
ficatiou will cause a final falling away from you not 
only of acquaintances, friends, church laborers and 
fellow Christians, but one's kindred and oftentimes 
family itself. 

The man, even with his new-found purity and joy, 
is at first aghast over this social landslide and the 



96 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

sudden sense of distance and separation from those 
whom lie never loved so tenderly and so well before. 

He tries to explain the new life to his friends, and 
they look at him as if he was talking Sanscrit. He 
pours out his experience to his family ; they listen with 
outward respect in some instances, with ill concealed 
amusement in others, with evident sorrow and morti- 
fication in still others, and with unbelief in all. 

He next goes to old church workers or to the 
ministry, and with flaming tongue gives his experience 
and tries to get them to see it But through all the con- 
versation he is held at arm's length, the faces turned 
upon him are cold, skeptical, unsympathetic, and there 
is an evident reluctance to being seen with him on the 
street, and an equally manifest desire to get away. 

After this the man rushes into the religious press 
if he is allowed, and pours forth the fact of the new 
found blessing in glowing sentences. Surely all will 
see it now. But the following issue of the paper con- 
tains three articles in reply, one exceedingly bitter, a 
second ridiculing, and the third in a patronizing and 
pitying manner, telling the sanctified brother that he, 
the writer, had received an hundred blessings like the 
one he had written about, and there was still a thou- 
sand left ; to keep on and get all he could ; that there 
was no end to God's blessings, and so they could not, 
and should not be numbered. 

Religious correspondence on the same line also 



fcONBUNESS OF THE UFE. 97 

proved a failure. Some letters were answered In a 
curt spirit, some with an offended, and others with a 
bored tone. Some remained long unanswered, and 
still others were never granted a reply. 

It was exceedingly hard to give up the friends of a 
religious life-time, even after all these disappointments 
and rebuffs ; and so effort after effort was still put 
forth to get in touch with certain church members and 
ministers with whom in former days he had enjoyed 
sweet fellowship and prayed, preached, shouted, la- 
bored, and won victories for Christ together. But it was 
all in vain. A chasm had been dug by the Holy Ghost 
in a distinct work of grace. The love and inclination to 
be " in touch* * was on the sanctified side, the shrink- 
ing and distrust was on the other side, and the moral 
impossibility of coming together was on both sides. 

Two letters received in two months of one another 
from the same individual, but one written before, and 
the other after the party addressed had received the 
blessing of sanctification, would fully serve to show the 
chasm or distance we speak of. Indeed, there is 
no need to reproduce the letters entire, but simply the 
opening and concluding lines : 

[Before.] 
My Wku, Bkmvbd Brother : 

I was delighted to receive your letter of the, etc., etc 

Cordially end affectionately yours, 



98 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

[After.] 
Rev. . 

Dear Sir and Brother : 

Yours of the 15th inst to hand, etc., etc. 

Yours truly, 

* * * 

This last sent a pang through the heart on its 
reception, and caused additional wonder to the sancti- 
fied man as he realized that he never had entertained 
a warmer love for all men than now in this time of 
frosty notes, freezing bows and distant polar region 
manners. 

But wonder or not, the fact remains that the 
man who obtains the grace of sanctification finds him- 
self held off at arm's length by the church. He is 
viewed with suspicion, distrust, and even fear. He is 
regarded as making claims to superior blessings and 
graces, and thus lauding himself over his brethren. 
He is supposed to ignore the Bible teaching of growth 
in grace, and all the melting, refining processes that 
come with time in the Christian life. He is felt to be 
presumptuous and arrogant in claiming to have 
reached at a single bound of faith what his brethren 
have been toiling after unavailingly along the Growth 
Route for twenty, thirty and forty years. In a word, 
in making the claims he does he "reflects on the 
brethren," or as it is written in the Gospel, " Master, 
in saying this you speak against us. ' ' This, of course, 



LONELINESS OF THE LIFE. 99 

means a permanent landslide of church friends and 
church people. They will, without doubt, "separate 
you from their company/ ' and in so doing will feel 
they have discharged their duty and done God and 
the church a service. We must remember that they 
really and honestly regard people claiming sanctifica- 
tion as being deluded and fanatical. 

In one of our large Western cities a young married 
lady obtained the blessing of sanctification in a meet- 
ing held by the writer. She had been a great church 
worker before, and with a number of prominent 
church women was a member of a tea drinking circle, 
which bore quite a high sounding name. This circle 
had weekly meetings, and was migratory in character, 
so that it was the custom for an executive committee 
to issue notices to the members of the day, hour, 
and private dwelling for the next Bon Ton Tea- Drink- 
ing Caucus. But on the news flashing around that 
she had swept into the experience of sanctification, 
the lady's name of whom we speak was promptly 
dropped. No notice came to her. She spoke to us 
about it with eyes moist and a pained tone : * ' My old 
friends have all met together this afternoon without 
me"; then with a flash of joy in her face she added : 
"But oh, I am so happy, my heart is singing all 
the time !" 

I saw at a glance that she was drinking some- 
thing better than tea, and was in a higher and more 



IOO THS SANCTIFIED UFE. 

select circle than the Bon Ton Tea- Drinking Sister- 
hood. 

There are far graver separations than this, but 
the instance serves to illustrate the point in hand and 
reveal the spirit at work of which we speak. 

Finally the loneliness of the sanctified life comes 
as a result of the work of grace itself. 

God Himself by a second work in the soul lifts the 
individual into another and higher plane of Christian 
experience and living. There is a deeper knowledge 
of the heart, and a more intimate union with Christ. 
There are profounder joys, deeper peace, clearer light, 
abiding purity and unbroken communion with God. 
Such a work that gives new views of God, brings 
the soul out on the victory side of salvation, flings 
aside the weeping willow and waves a palm branch, 
quits complaining and whining, and instead rejoices 
evermore, prays without ceasing and in everything 
gives thanks; such a divine work that produces as 
* result so great a change, is bound to lift the man 
away from the ordinary rank and file of Christians 
and land him in lonely spiritual altitudes. For the 
one party to be astonished at this, and the other to 
fret about it, argues the lack of thought and failurfe to 
see certain well known principles at work on earth, as 
well as a strange forgetfulness of Bible statements. 

The loneliness is nothing but character distance. 
It is ft Hfe ttemoved by divine power. A chasm has 



LONELINESS OF THE LIFE. IOI 

been dug by the Holy Ghost. Men look across at 
each other, see each other, but can not touch as of 
yore, when all were on the same bank or shore of 
a common experience. 

To attempt to bridge or fill up this moral space or 
gap between yourself and others when it was made 
by the Spirit of God, is to imperil and lose the grace 
you enjoy. It is not intended of Heaven that the space 
should be bridged. The Holy Ghost alone can bring 
your friends to you. You can not afford to go back 
where you once were. 

Right here is a peril, and here many have lost the 
great blessing. They felt the loneliness and imagined 
they could go back and down into the neighborhood 
of a past grace, that they could discard their Canaan 
language, hide the new truths they had learned, say 
nothing of the precious secret, and so ingratiate them- 
selves with their chafed and sore-spirited brethren as 
to win them. So the logs were hewn, the timbers 
laid, the passage way constructed and they went back 
in a sense, and became as one of them. But the dis- 
tressing result was that while they came over to Moab 
by their bridge, they could not return to Canaan by 
it. It seemed to work only one way. 

Shortly after the writer received the blessing of 
sanctification, he saw his ministerial brethren looking 
shy and standing off from him. They actually ap- 
peared uncomfortable in his presence. So he with the 



I02 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

intention, not of giving up his blessing, but in the 
hope of showing them that he possessed the same love 
and friendship for them, was the same man, and they 
had nothing to fear, thought he would construct a 
little footbridge and go down to them as of yore. In 
a word, he had been accustomed to indulge with them 
in anecdotal conversation of amusing character, in 
preachers' meeting jocularity, etc. Once it seemed 
all right. Now he attempted it again as a sanctified 
man, hoping to win "the brethren/' But he got 
such a look from Christ, and the footbridge shook so 
dreadfully, that he ran back in a hurry. In other 
words, he saw that he could not safely bridge the 
chasm; that to discard the Canaan spirit and language 
would result in leaving Canaan itself; that he would 
imperil the blessing he enjoyed by anything like com- 
promise ; and that he must accept the loneliness that 
had come now as a feature of the blessing, as a result 
of the work of God in his soul. 

We have known numbers to remain weak in the 
sanctified life because of their ignoring the fact we 
have been enlarging upon ; and we have known num- 
bers more who have lost the blessing altogether. 
They could not understand the loneliness of the life as 
being the very handiwork of Heaven, and in attempt- 
ing to get in touch with people spiritually below them, 
"get out of touch with God above them. 

We once had a Senator from Mississippi after the 



LONELINESS OF THE UFE. IOJ 

Civil War who was far ahead in his political and 
social ^economic views of the commonwealth he repre- 
sented. Many of his constituency thought from his 
speeches in Congress that he was untrue to his State 
and her best interests. There were threats of recall- 
ing him. But he kept calmly on. He knew he was 
right. He was farther up the mountain than his 
fellow citizens, and his view of the future was clearer 
and more far reaching. He could not afford to come 
down. And he did not come down, but held on his 
way. He knew that in a few years his party adher- 
ents climbing up would see as he saw, and then endorse 
him. He would wait until then. And it all proved 
as he thought. In ten years the people reached the 
standpoint he had been on so long before, and saw as 
he saw, and recognized that they had wronged him. 
The beautiful thing about it was that he did not come 
down because they could not, or did not see as he did. 
He stayed up on the mountain side and waited for 
them to ascend. They ascended. 

We are to do likewise, as sanctified people. We 
know the doctrine of the second work to be true. We 
have the experience. It lifts us up into lonely heights. 
The religious social world is farther down. We call to 
them in gladness, and tell them what we have found 
and see. We speak of the widespread landscape, the 
nearness of heaven, and the cloudlessness of the place 
we hold. They may misunderstand us ; moral dis- 



104 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

tance accounting for that. They may misjudge us and 
say we are unsocial, unfriendly and altogether faulty. 
But we know in whom we have believed, and what we 
have received. We can not afford to go down because 
of adverse criticism and unjust judgment. Let them 
come up where we stand and see for themselves. 
Many will do this if we are- true to God and remain on 
the heights. 

Remember that this very loneliness of life will 
bring a blessing to men. It is not the man who 
spends his time in the crowd and merely reflects the 
opinion, spirit and attainments of men who most 
benefits the world, but the man who listens to and 
speaks of things that have their birth beyond and far 
above the street. John on the lonely Patmos saw 
more of heaven than the Sanhedrim in Jerusalem. 

Such laymen bring the odor of the flowers of Para- 
dise with them into their offices and stores. Such 
preachers do not waste time in their pulpits on the 
questions of the day, about which most of their hearers 
are better posted than themselves, but gladden, revive 
and bless the audience with answers from heaven, and 
fresh tidings from the unseen but eternal world. Such 
writers give us books that are like Gates of Pearl, 
opening upon the City of God, while the chapters are 
like heavenly avenues fringed with trees of life and 
filled with flitting forms of spiritual truth and beauty. 

We thank God every day for the conversation, 



IX)NKUNESS OF THE UFB. 105 

preaching, writings and lives of these lonely men and 
women who find ' ' sermons in stones, books in run- 
ning brooks, p p thoughts in stars, messages in flowers, 
see common shrubs by the road aflame and asparkle 
with divine glory, hear the surf as it thunders 
anthems of praise on the strand, and behold in the 
gold and crimson sunset one of the twelve gates of 
the Eternal City. 

Most men note the storm, fire and earthquake 
that rend the mountain and shake the valleys. But 
these are they who stand at the entering in of the 
cave with mantle-wrapped head and hear the still, 
small voice that escapes the multitude. When they 
take away the vail to speak we notice that the face is 
shining. They have heard things that are only 
spoken in spiritual heights. And when they turn to 
speak or write or live before us, it is as if we had 
heard an angel singing in the evening sky, and life 
becomes invested with deeper and broader meanings, 
and a divine design is seen everywhere. Sorrow be- 
comes a garment of moral beauty, Sickness and 
Disappointment methods of weaning the soul from 
clay, and the Earth itself is seen to be a college for 
the mind, a training school for spiritual activities, a 
theater for the display of God's power in grace, and 
the very ante-chamber or porch of the world of Glory 
just hidden from us now by a curtain of blue spangled 
with silver stars. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PRAYER AND READING. 

A DISTINGUISHING trait of the sanctified life is 
the spirit of prayer. In the regenerated life it 
come and goes, but in sanctification it abides. We do 
not mean to say that the individual is always praying 
aloud, although frequent ejaculatory supplications will 
escape the lips. Nor do we mean that he is always 
mentally praying, although even there he far out- 
strips his converted brother ; but we refer to an almost 
indescribable mood or frame of prayer that lingers and 
dwells in the heart. Just as a song sung upon a 
mountain-locked lake echoes and re-echoes, rocks on 
the billows, is blown about by the breezes, flung back 
from the hillsides, clings to the willow branches and 
absolutely seems to refuse to go from the spot ; so the 
spirit of prayer abides in the soul. It remains in 
spite of everything. It is felt as we read the Word of 
God, as we look on sin, or sit in meditation before 
God. It arises in the hour of public worship, and in 
the rush of the street. It glows on Sunday, but it 
also burns on Monday. He who has the genuine work 
of sanctification finds this sweet gift of heaven, this 

very breath of God in him and upon him. It may be 
106 



PRAYER AND RFADING. 107 

wore or less ardent according to obedience and devo- 
tion, but it is there with all who are sanctified. The 
dead, flat, prayerless condition of the soul seen at 
times in the regenerated life, can not be in the wholly 
sanctified. 

Now for the first time we understand the injunction 
of the apostle to "pray without ceasing.* ■ A com- 
mand that once seemed fairly to mock us. How faith- 
fully we tried it, and misunderstanding the Word, and 
ignorant of the divine work in the soul that makes the 
duty not only possible but easy, we finally regarded 
the commandment as a standard lifted up to inspire 
one but never to be attained. We failed to see that 
the unceasing spirit of praj^er comes with the second 
work of grace. 

It is not, however, the spirit of prayer we are call- 
ing attention to, but the duty of prayer. The one is 
the gift of God, the other the observance of the man. 

It looks strange that there should be need to im- 
press such a duty upon sanctified people who feel 
in them this prayerfulness or soul of prayer. But 
there is necessity for just such a stirring up of pure 
minds by way of remembrance. 

There is undoubtedly a presuming by some sancti- 
fied people on the blessing of sanctification. It brings 
to the heart such a spirit of prayer that they take 
advantage of it and do not observe the prolonged 
seasons of supplication of which the Bible and holy 



I08 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

biographies have so much to say, and that tell with 
such wonderful result on personal character and the 
moral history of the world. 

There are as many grades of sanctified people as 
there are spiritual distinctions in the regenerated life. 
Some sanctified people live much closer to God than 
others who possess the same blessing ; and the explan- 
ation is found in the observance or neglect of pro- 
tracted waiting upon God in the closet of prayer. 

The Lord announces himself a jealous God, and 
He will never give to the soul a blessing that will 
make it in a sense independent, and able to get along 
without frequent and deep communings with Himself. 
He wants the soul to be often in His presence, and when 
there to linger. The reasons for this are obvious at 
a glance. 

He desires none of His children to possess stale 
experiences. He commanded fresh oil to be placed in 
the lamps, and new loaves on the table of the sanctu- 
ary. It is the ever fresh manifestation of God to the 
soul that is so attractive and impressive to the world. 

Again, the deep things of the spiritual life are not 
given to the hurried visitor at the throne of grace, but 
to the lingerer at the Footstool of Prayer. It is mar- 
velous what secrets such people obtain from the 
skies. They are ever astonishing others with their 
beautiful and blessed discoveries in the Bible and 
kingdom of Grace. They spend so much time on 



PRAYER AND READING. IO9 

their knees listening at the gates of heaven to what 
is going on within, that there is no wonder they 
surprise those religious people who spend most of 
their time in listening to what people of this world are 
saying. 

Still again a divine Ambassador and Messenger 
should be in constant touch with his King and Gov- 
ernment in order to do them justice and to benefit as 
well the people to whom he is sent. This is recog- 
nized as necessary in the affairs of the kingdoms of 
this world. A minister of Foreign Affairs, an Am- 
bassador or Envoy Extraordinary would be felt to be 
making, the name and the office a travesty, if he did 
not keep in closest touch and latest communication 
with the powers that sent him. 

In like manner that servant of Heaven is most 
effective who has the longest and latest interviews 
with the I/>rd and Master who has sent him forth. 
It is wonderful how little moved and blessed we are 
under the words of spiritually dried Christians who 
have not seen Christ in days and weeks, and are run- 
ning on a bare memory of former times of grace. 
And equally marvelous how the simplest utterances 
of men and women given to much prayer invariably 
move the heart. 

Nothing can take the place of protracted prayer 
as a peculiar means of grace. Sanctification, with its 
great gift of the spirit of prayer, was never intended 



HO THE SANCTIFIED WFB. 

of God to release us at this point, but to multiply the 
seasons and length of our supplications. 

By it comes increased knowledge of God, deeper 
insight in the Word, a profounder acquaintance with 
the heart, a greater hatred to sin, a mightier love for 
holiness and souls, a growing boldness in prayer, a 
more regal faith, and that heavenly authority and 
power in eye, voice and life that is instantly seen 
and recognized by the multitude, whether they be 
religious or irreligious. 

We have only to go to the Gospel to find the 
divine example of the very kind of prayer we are 
pleading for. Holy as the Saviour was we find Him 
spending a whole night at a time in supplication. 
This being the expression of the pure heart and life of 
Christ, we might well afford to distrust a holiness 
experience that is content to move along without spe- 
cial and prolonged waitings upon God. It is running 
the engine on what is called a dry boiler, and it is 
bound at last to injure the boiler. 

Years ago we read that we were so constituted that 
just in proportion as the knees get soft the heart 
grows hard, and as the knees grow hard the heart gets 
soft. We have found it to be so in our own experi- 
ence and in that of many others with whom we have 
conversed. In a word, we never enter upon a religious 
life in this world that releases us from the obligation 
and necessity of much prayer. Some fancy this to bfc 



PRAYER AND READING. Ill 

the case, but a fancy is one thing and a fact Is another. 
Following these will-of-the-wisp fancies they will yet 
break their hearts over a granite fact of a backslidden 
life ; and as all backsliding begins in the closet of 
prayer, the meaning of this figu r e is at once under- 
stood by the reader. 

One of the early Bishops of our church was full of 
holy fire and power. He was a prince and prevailer 
with God and man. When he preached the fire of 
heaven would fall. Many used to wonder at his 
spiritual influence. When he was old and feeble, 
a preacher was assisting him to disrobe for bed. On 
passing his hand over the Bishop's knees he was 
struck with the rough, hard feeling of the skin. It 
was like a great corn on each knee. He asked the 
Bishop what produced it, when after some hesitation 
the aged servant of God replied : ' ' It has been done 
through prayer.' ' 

What a revelation of weak religious lives, and 
what an explanation of powerless pulpits could be 
made to-day by the examination of the knees of God's 
people. How soft most of them would be found to 
be ! And how hard at the same time would be some 
of their words, how stony their feelings and how iron- 
like and pitiless their decisions and judgments. 

Brainard was much given to prayer, spending tnus 
four and five hours a day. Payson also knew how to 
tarry hours at a time in supplication. Knox was mighty 



112 THE SANCTIFIED U*E. 

in prayer. Luther prayed three hours daily, and 
Wesley did the same. All of us know how the 
world stands indebted to-day to those men for great 
spiritual blessings and moral uplifts that never would 
have come, first to them and then afterward to 
us, but for the fact that they know how to open 
the windows toward Jerusalem, and kneeling down, 
steadily look in that direction and wait until some- 
thing happened. Something always does happen to 
such waiting. Isaiah says, "They mount up," and 
when they mount, they make others rise up with 
them. 

Such an importunate man of prayer was Fletcher. 
Many will remember how once before going to his knees 
he told his servant to call him at the end of an half 
hour, as he had an important engagement. Promptly 
at the time appointed the servant opened Mr. Fletch- 
er's study door and found the man of God with eyes 
uplifted, countenance rapt, and soul absorbed in earn- 
est communion with Heaven. The servant, unwilling 
to break upon his devotions, stole softly away and 
came back an half hour later. But Mr. Fletcher was 
still in the same absorbed and rapt attitude. Again 
the servant retired unable to get his consent to disturb 
the man of prayer, and again returned at the end of 
the third half hour to find the man of God in the same 
position and perfectly oblivious of his surroundings 
and the Sight of time. But the servant dared not 



PRAYER AND READING. I13 

disobey any longer, but crossing the room to the 
kneeling preacher, he said : 

"Mr. Fletcher, I dislike to disturb you, but you 
told me to call you at the end of an half hour/' 

" What/ ' cried Mr. Fletcher, "is it gone al- 
ready! 

Is it any wonder that this man shook the church 
of which he was pastor to the center, and that when 
he preached, God answered by fire from heaven. 

It was in full knowledge of the tremendous out- 
going force from this practice that the disciples di 
rected the brethren, to look out for certain men to serve 
tables, "But we will give ourselves continually to 
prayer." 

If we as sanctified people are to retain fresh and 
bright experiences, if we would march forward to 
greater victories, if we would even hold our own we 
must abound in prayer. 

A second great duty of the sanctified man is found 
in religious reading. Here again the breadth, depth 
and height of the holiness life in the individual is 
seen to be affected by the practice or neglect of this 
privilege and duty as well. 

Our knowledge of sanctification is that with its 
entrance as an experience into the soul, there is imme- 
diately realized a keen relish for the Word of God and 
healthy appetite for all spiritual reading. Hence to 
see people who claim this blessing careless of the 



114 ? HE > SANCTIFIED UFE. 

study of the Bible, and failing to inform the brain and 
feed the soul from the wealth of holiness literature 
now in the providence of God all around us, is to 
make us marvel, grieve and even doubt concerning 
such a type of sanctification. 

The double desire to be informed of the truth and 
delivered from ignorance and error, should be sufficient 
to cause sanctified people to read the Scriptures and all 
available good books with avidity. In addition to 
this the very importance and momentousness of the 
doctrine calls for proper study and faithful investi- 
gation. 

Sanctification claims to be the central idea of Chris- 
tianity, the crowning doctrine of revelation, the moving 
force of the church, the qualification for service, and 
fitness for heaven. With such bearings upon the 
individual, the church and the world itself, ought we 
not to seek to inform ourselves thoroughly in regard 
to this great privilege of the soul by going deep into 
the Word, and culling that literature which has pro- 
ceeded from the pens of others who have penetrated 
deeper into the Bible than we have gone ourselves ? 

If the doctrine is false, let us find it out. If it is 
true, we owe it to God and our souls to learn all we 
can about it. In either case, we should read. 

We have observed that when fanaticism has made 
its appearance in connection with the Holiness Move- 
ment, it has been where there was false teaching and 



FRA YKR AND READING. 1 1 5 

pernicious literature. Ignorance has ever been and 
will ever be a hot-bed for error. Lift up the truth - 
and folly and extravagance have to go. Holy Fire is 
able to destroy fox fire, wild fire and false fire. 

We have noticed that in those communities where, 
after a gracious holiness revival, a great many good 
books were bought, excellent religious papers sub- 
scribed for, and the Bible brought forward at once in 
faithful, daily study, that such towns and places were 
singularly free from " isms' ' of every kind. The 
magicians failed to put in their appearance with 
their rods, and if they did, the rod of Truth would 
promptly swallow up the rods of error. 

Most thankful has the writer ever been, that 
immediately following upon his sanctification, he 
purchased every first class book on the doctrine and 
experience he could find. The blessed result in his 
mind and heart and on his life could not be estimated. 
At once he was made wise to recognize and avoid 
error in its various forms; while the various phases 
and aspects of the experience, the privileges and 
duties of the life became so quickly familiar as to give r 
him every advantage and start him off with songs, 
assurances and victories that could and never would 
have been his but for this same diligence in the mat- 
ter of reading. 

In addition to the thought of instruction is the 
fact of spiritual food. Devotional reading is a neces- 



1X6 THft SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

•Ity. The soul must have it. Solid spiritual litera- 
ture meets this want. To deprive the heart of that, 
is like denying bread and meat to the body. That 
spiritual starvation makes a weak Christian ought no 
more to surprise a person than that lack of material 
food makes a feeble body. 

Every Christian with any experience at all knows 
the effect of newspaper reading and the world's litera- 
ture upon the soul. What a dry, empty, unfed, 
unrefreshed, unrenewed and unsatisfied feeling is left 
in the heart after hours of such reading ; while in 
spiritual books and papers, the soul at once recognizes 
its nutriment and ends each mental meal with a feel- 
ing of strength and satisfaction that is seen in the 
eye, is read in the face and is equally marked in the 
life. 

Of course, the Bible outranks all other books, 
and so should be made prominent and pre-eminent. 
Let the reader remember that when he prays he is 
talking to God, but when he reads the Bible, God is 
talkfcg to him. Great is this difference, and few 
have appreciated it 

A much praised, but a much neglected book is the 
Bible. And yet it is God talking to us. 

It is the soul's book. Other books tell of art, 
science, law, commerce, etc., but this book tells us 
about an invisible soul and its invisible home. It 
deals in spiritual things and tells us how to live spirit- 



PRAYKR AND RBADINO. 117 

ually and become fit to see God and live in a spiritual 
world. 

It takes the Holy Spirit to unlock the book. He 
who reads simply with the eye of the Intellect will 
miss the glory of the book, and never realize the soul- 
food with which it is stored. It is well to ask the 
light and blessing of the Holy Ghost upon us each 
time that we read. 

It is well not only to read prayerfully, but slowly 
and meditatively as we proceed. The careless and 
hasty reader will get no benefit. To pass food through 
a man hurriedly encased in a tin tube will give him 
no strength ; and so a skimming over the Book or a 
shooting through the mind hastily of certain passages, 
more as a salve to conscience than anything else, will 
never give the spiritual life and vigor that is needed. 
How can it ? A salve is not food. Food has to be 
masticated, digested, assimilated, to become blood, 
strength and life. So with the Word. 

Muller advises the taking of ten or twelve rich 
verses in the Gospels or Psalms, and reading each 
verse over slowly four or five times before proceeding 
to the next. He says the effect will be blessed. Let 
the reader try it 

Fletcher had a way of kneeling down before the 
Bible with a finger upon a passage, crying out, 
44 Light, Lord." And he always got it. Let the 
reader try it. 



1 18 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

I?or over a dozen years the writer has read the 
Bible on his knees. He reads the entire volume 
through in that way once each year, and the New 
Testament of tener. It has been a great blessing to 
him. If the reader is so moved of God let him try it. 

Anyhow, let us all pay attention to reading, avoid- 
ing every kind of literature that is hurtful to the soul, 
perusing no book that we would not like Christ to sit 
down and study with us, selecting the purest and 
best of religious volumes for our devotional reading, 
and above all taking the Word of God as the man of 
our counsel and constant companion. 



CHAPTER X. 

WITNESSING. 

/ * OD is going to take this world for His Son. There 

^"^ is no question about the final success, no matter 

how long may be the delay through the sluggishness 

of His people, and opposition of men and devils. 

What method will God use to bring the nations to 

His feet ? It will riot be physical force, for the reason 

that He deals with spirits who are free moral agents 

and can not be driven. One reason that the Flood 

was sent, and the fires of wrath swept Sodom and 

Gomorrah from the face of the earth, was to show men 

that physical agencies and forces could not reform men. 

Sin still raged after these judgments, and the same 

sin at that. Neither were angels sent to preach the 

Gospel. Men would be paralyzed at the presence of 

supernatural beings, and could not listen. Neither did 

God have the message of mercy and life written in 

blazing letters across the sky, for the people would 

soon cease to read it, and be as indifferent as they were 

to the presence of God on Mt. Sinai. Nor does God 

trust to good literature to bring it about. He could 

have dropped books and papers on the earth like manna. 

But men could refuse to read. They could close the 

119 



120 THE SANCTIFIED UFK. 

books or walk away from them. It is one thing to 
bring a horse to water, another to make him drink. 

God's plan is laid down both in the Old and New 
Testaments. In the former He says, "Ye are my 
witnesses. ' ' In the latter, ' • Ye shall be witnesses unto 
me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the utter- 
most part of the earth.' * When a new nation or king- 
dom arises it at once adopts a flag and weapons. So the 
morning of Pentecost when the setting up of Christ's 
kingdom took place, the weapon of conquest was seen 
resting upon the heads of the one hundred and twenty 
disciples, in the form of a cloven tongue of fire. It is 
with this that God proposes to overcome the world, — 
the tongue. But according to the Scripture it is not an 
ordinary tongue, but a new tongue, a tongue of fire, a 
tongue in motion. Just as a flame is seen to have a 
flickering motion when burning, so must it be with this 
instrument of God, which He selects to spread the truth 
— it must not be cold or motionless. And finally it was 
cloven or split down the middle to show that the man 
is to talk twice as much as he ever did before. In a 
word, we are to be witnesses. 

God's method is first to fill the man with the facts 
o# salvation and then send the baptism of fire upon him. 
Sometimes men fail to see the beauty and necessity of 
this order. All of us have met with men who had the 
facts but not the fire, and others who had the fire, but 
not the facts. God's order is facts and fire. He does 



WITNESSING. 121 

not want them separated. They make a most wonder- 
ful and powerful combination. 

So a witness for God after this order is better than 
a book, no matter how good it is. God's best book of 
Christian evidence is five or six feet long, eighteen 
inches broad and bound in human skin. Men can run 
away from the books that men publish, but God's human 
book has legs and goes after people. Men' s books when 
closed and unused are powerless, but this book of God, 
a human teacher, will not be shut up, but pursues one 
with prayer, testimony and exhortation, until there 
is nothing left for the pursued to do but to surrender. 

This witnessing can of course be more or less effica- 
cious. Some is just what God wants it to be, some 
could be improved, and some really does harm. We 
are not only to be witnesses, but a certain kind of 
witnesses. The Scripture gives hints and directions 
that if carried out will add immeasurably to our effec- 
tiveness. We glance at a few points. 

First, we are to witness to the truth. There is no 
necessity of shunning the truth ; we have plenty of 
facts. As for falsehood, whether it appears in the 
statement of doctrine or experience, the Spirit of God 
will not fall upon it. God will not smile upon a lie. 
It is the truth He wants, and nothing but the truth. 
We have all lamented that error has been lifted up in 
pulpits and from the pew. We all know what it is to 
hear men claiming for th^gg^lves in experience what 



122 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

the hollow accent of the voice, the dull leathery look 
of the face and the unspirituality of the life contra- 
dicted. While upon the plain statement of Gospel 
facts and the simple relation of a genuine experience, 
the presence of God and the benediction of Heaven 
are at once felt. 

Second, we must witness to the whole truth. Why 
tell a part and keep back another? If one person has 
gone deeper in the grace of God than another, why not 
speak of the greater blessing ? If one has made spiritual 
discoveries, why not proclaim them ? If neglected and 
lost doctrines are recovered, with their consequent ex- 
periences, why should we not testify to the enlarge- 
ment and enrichment of our souls ? Does God do what 
He condemned as absurd in human life, and light a 
candle to put it under a bushel ? 

So far from this He says what we hear in the ear 
that proclaim upon the housetops. And Paul says if 
the trumpet give an uncertain sound who will pre- 
pare himself for the battle, and adds that a stranger 
coming into our meetings and hearing us declare 
the facts of grace will fall on his face and say God 
is with you of a truth. 

The very word witness brings guidance here. A 
witness in the courts is expected to tell all he knows. 
We are God's witnesses. The Saviour and His power 
to save is on trial before the bar of the world. We 
owe it to Him to tell all we know. 



WITNESSING. 123 

It is well to recollect that the knowledge of God is 
to be spread through the earth by human agencies, 
and this understanding of the Divine Being and His 
power to save has thus far kept pace with the utter- 
ances of consecrated lips. God is known as men declare 
Him. A silent church means a spiritually dead com- 
munity. A testifying Christianity invariably brings 
the knowledge of God to the people, and great works of 
grace follow as a consequence. A talking Luther and 
preaching Wesley brought about two of the greatest 
revivals of the world. They brought out through 
faithful witnesses that God could pardon and sanctify, 
and lo, multitudes accept both of these graces. It was 
noticed when the cholera was devastating Europe that 
it advanced in its deadly march about twenty miles 
a day. This fact led to the discovery that the disease 
was not atmospheric but contagious, and had to be 
carried about by people. This twenty miles a day was 
about the ordinary journey of men at that time. So 
the Gospel keeps pace with the advance of men. It 
goes as far as men carry it with their tongues. 

This being true for one doctrine is true for all. 
God does not restore a lost truth and experience by 
dropping a book from the skies, but through the 
instrumentality of men filled with the fact and set on 
fire by the Holy Ghost. So we all owe it to God and 
to the world in which we live to tell all we know of 
Christ and His saving power. We should witness to 



124 TH * SANCTIFIED UFE. 

the whole truth. By each one declaring what he has 
received from God, and what he knows of Him, we 
will finally clear away spiritual ignorance, and God and 
His Christ will be sought and blessedly known. 

We once listened to a preacher at an annual con- 
ference preach a masterly sermon. He had recently 
received the blessing of sanctification, and the text 
in a culminating way led him right up to it. As he 
neared the generally unknown, unexperienced and 
agitating subject, you could have heard a pin drop. 
Preachers who had or had not the blessing bent 
forward for the final explanation, application and 
direct meaning of the passage. To the astonishment 
of all, he with every sign of wanting to do his duty, 
became terrorized, listened to Satan and wheeled off 
in his remarks in another direction. 

A lady approached a world-wide evangelist who 
claimed to have received the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost and asked him why he did not preach it. His 
reply was that the people were not ready for it. This 
answer was simply amazing as a piece of spiritual pride 
and ignorance. By this speech he virtually said God 
had given him a blessing that other people could not 
have. Was this not pride ? As for the ignorance, Peter 
said : M The promise is to you and to your children, 
and to them that are afar off and to as many as the 
Lord our God shall call." The same Bible tells us 
that God has called us all to holiness. And Paul says 



WITNESSING. 125 

that Christ " suffered outside the gate that He might 
sanctify the people." 

Third, we are to witness fearlessly. A fright- 
ened looking witness on the stand in the court would 
not make a favorable impression. And so the timid 
testifier to this great blessing will not do much to the 
spread of the doctrine. The evident dread of men and 
fear of remark and opposition will be felt by on-look- 
ers as incongruous and irreconcilable with the posses- 
sion of a blessing which is claimed to cast out all fear. 

We have marvelled at the exhibition of this 
man-dread at Conferences, Love Feasts and at the 
home class-meeting. Terms that are Scriptural and 
Wesleyan, which had been bravely used at the time of 
the reception of sanctification, and when surrounded 
by sympathizers and believers in the doctrine, were 
discarded in an unfriendly atmosphere, and expressions 
descriptive of religious experience were used so gen- 
eral in their nature as to mean anything or nothing. 
That kind of people do more damage to the cause 
than evil spirits from the under world. 

It is the calm, earnest and fearless utterance or 
testimony to a second work of grace that God honors, 
and that plants a conviction which men find impos- 
sible or exceedingly difficult to remove. 

Fourth, we must witness in love. This is perfectly 
reconcilable with the foregoing thought. It is a great 
mistake to think that courage is the same as pugna- 



126 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

ciousness and offensiveness. It does not mean imper- 
tinence and rudeness. A man does not walk around 
with a chip on his shoulder aching for a fight. It 
does not make a John Sullivan out of a Christian. 

" The bravest are the tenderest, 
The loving are the daring.* ' 

The Saviour had no fear of men or devils in his 
heart, and yet who was so gentle and kind ? 

The person who thinks He can advance the cause 
of Christ and holiness by a fierce, defiant and blus- 
tering manner will find himself sorely mistaken. It 
is certainly most desirable to witness to Perfect IyOve 
in perfect love. Such a testimony joined to so lovely 
a spirit becomes irresistible. 

While we are called to warn and rebuke, yet we 
are told to do so "with all longsuff ering. ' ' Some 
people seem only happy when they are excoriating 
others with their speeches. Some one says about 
them that they ' ' make the promises of God too hot 
to hold.' ' 

We are not asking for a " sickening sweetness ' ' 
of life. We are pleading for a spirit of love as we 
witness for God and sanctification. We want ' ' honey 
out of the rock." That is a sweet, loving spirit out 
of a firm, consistent life. The life can be like a rock 
for steadfastness, while love flows from it like honey. 

It is wonderful how people will listen to us if they 
feel we really love them. It is marvelous what 



WITNESSING. I27 u 

rebukes they will stand if they hear the accent of 
kindness and love in the voice. 

We once wondered how the great multitudes stood 
the abusive language of a certain national evangelist. 
There in cold print were the most offensive terms, and 
yet the multitudes hung upon his words and turned 
by hundreds to the I^ord. When at last we heard 
the man for ourself the whole thing was explained. 
We found his face shone with the light of good humor 
and a genuine love for sinners, and when the expres- 
sions were used that if spoken in real harshness would 
have maddened the crowd, we found they were 
uttered in such a smiling and loving way that resent- 
ment was completely disarmed. 

We do not hold up all of this case as a model, but 
to illustrate how necessary in our witnessing that we 
should be full of love. 

Fifth, we must witness in the power of the Holy 
Ghost. 

It is remarkable how trying and irritating religious 
testimony is that comes merely from the lips and 
throat. All of us know the weariness, dreariness and 
general tinpanniness of a witnessing that is without 
unction. It sounds as if memorized, is parrot-like, 
juiceless and powerless. 

The effective testifying is from the Spirit- filled 
heart. The individual may not be in an ecstasy, but 
the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the soul 



128 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

will give a thrill, life and force to the words uttered, 
no matter how simple they are, that will never fail to 
do good. 

It is remarkable that witnessing is connected by 
Christ with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost or the 
second work of grace. He said to the disciples, "Ye 
shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come 
upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in 
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost part of the earth." 

The difficulty realized in getting regenerated people 
to testify, and the readiness and volubility of sancti- 
fied people on the witness stand, are here both made 
perfectly plain by the words of the Saviour just 
quoted. 

Let us see to it that we always speak in the Spirit 
and by the Spirit. What a freshness, spiritual beauty 
and tender power is felt to reside in the simple, honest 
utterances of such followers of God. 

Still, we are not to keep silence simply because 
there may be no conscious afflatus or mighty spirit- 
ual exaltation. Oftentimes most gracious blessings 
will come to the soul when speaking out for God in 
times of heaviness through peculiar besetments and 
temptations. And furthermore, it is well to remember 
that the testimony of every one who lives right will 
b* honored of God, whether he has religious raptures 
at the time or not. 



WITNESSING, 129 

Sixth, we are called not to be lawyers for God, 
but witnesses. 

Many make a profound mistake here. They feel 
that God expects them to make masterly arguments 
for Him in proof of this " secret of the Lord, M this 
" mystery of the Gospel/' this blessed doctrine of 
entire sanctification. 

They overlook the fact that a secret is not found 
out by arguments, but has to be revealed. A mystery 
does not succumb to syllogisms. Men can not be 
reasoned into sanctification. God has not sent out 
a set of ecclesiastical lawyers and arguers to settle 
these grave questions, but a band of witnesses. 

We have observed in the courts of law that wit- 
nesses are not expected to argue and plead, but to tell 
what they know. This is what God expects of His 
people. Tell what you know about Him. It is testi- 
mony concerning actual knowledge and experience, 
and not fine orations, that bows down the human 
heart and sweeps souls to Christ. 

Many have overlooked the plain statement of the 
Bible that we are simply witnesses. Feeling that 
they had no special gifts ; that they did not know how 
to defend the truth skillfully; that they were not 
eloquent and wise ; they have set back in idleness and 
unprofitableness, when all God wanted was their 
testimony. 

A witness tells what he knows, and so in the 



I30 THE SANCTIFIED UFE, 

courts can be a child or a very ignorant person. It is 
not learning or eloquence the court is after, but facts, 
and the facts with which the witness is familiar. 

This is what God expects of us. Not a harangue 
of the hustings, not misty speculation, not golden 
worded orations, but a loving, faithful, tireless declara- 
tion of what we know about Jesus and His power to 
make holy and keep holy. 

The world is anxious for argument. They are 
willing to dispute. But it would have been a mistake 
for Heaven to have sent us out to confront the world 
on its strong side, and that too, when so many of 
God's people are illiterate and could be easily wound 
up argumentatively by a skillful master of debate on 
the other side. Instead of this, God institutes a flank 
attack on the world, and sends against its reasoners a 
band of shining-faced, happy-souled people who, with 
an overflowing gladness, are irresistible and unan- 
swerable in Spirit-empowered and fire-baptized utter- 
ances of what they feel and know in Divine things. 

The writer once held a meeting in one of our 
Southern States. A certain member of the church 
in the town at once put himself in opposition to the 
doctrine that was preached and to all done at the 
services. To his astonishment and chagrin first his 
wife and next his son, who was a young man, obtained 
the blessing of sanctification. At once he sought to 
bring them into an argument, and so goaded them 



WITNESSING. 131 

with stinging remarks and bantered them for a for- 
ensic contest. But the wife was a sensible woman 
and seemed to take intuitively the proper course 
under the circumstances. When the husband fol- 
lowed her into the kitchen where she was super- 
vising the preparation of breakfast or dinner, and 
tried to get her to dispute about the holy experi- 
ence, she however would not thus be betrayed, and 
simply replied, "I have it, husband, " and went on 
silently with her work. The defeated and exasper- 
ated man went into the garden, where his son was 
digging among the vegetables, and tried in like man- 
ner to arouse him, but he being taught of his mother 
made no reply. By this time the husband and father 
was filled with such anguish that he wanted to scream. 
He went into his parlor and rolled on the floor and 
pulled his hair. He admitted it all some days after. 
No one would argue with him, and he was miserable. 
He was steadily being whipped out by gentle replies 
and silence. In a week's time he went down, not by 
the reasoning of a lawyer in the kingdom, but by the 
gentle, discreet speech of two of God's witnesses. 

Seventh, the testimony and the life of the witnesses 
should agree. 

It is wonderful what an added power is given to 
Christian testimony when the spirit, conversation, 
conduct and, in a word, the life harmonizes with the 
profession. On the other hand, the soul of the lis- 



132 thh sanctified u#b. 

tener fairly sickens in hearkening to the relation of 
high and holy experiences, when the daily walk and 
actions of the man will not bear it out. The very 
voice of the speaker is against him. Spiritual hol- 
lowness is heard. There is much apparent fervor of 
speech, even frenzy of manner, but that indescribable 
unction that comes from the Holy One is absent. So 
men listen and behold, with crawly sensations running 
along the nerves, and inward spiritual distress that is 
not unlike nausea. 

The professor must be a possessor. We must live 
what we witness to. When we do this God smiles 
and men are moved. 

This harmony and agreement of speech and life is 
brought out in the Old Testament in the robe of the 
high priest. On the border of the garment were 
golden bells and pomegranates. There were twelve 
of each, and the order was a bell and a pomegranate, 
a bell and a pomegranate unto the end. The voice 
from this remarkable fringe should make us all 
thoughtful. The bells stood for testimony and the 
pomegranates for the fruits of the life. And the 
parable was that the testimony and life equal each 
other. Ring out the bells of Christian witnessing, 
but let the fruits of the life measure up exactly to the 
testimony. 

Some would destroy the beautiful truth thus taught 
of God, and so alter the numbers that had been com- 



WITNESSING. 133 

manded by the Lord. Some believe in six bells and 
eighteen pomegranates; that is, they want the life 
to be ahead of the testimony. They fail to read the 
lesson on the fringe. Others believe in six pome- 
granates and eighteen bells. They talk more than 
they possess. God's reply to both of these mistaken 
individuals is seen in the skirt of the robe — twelve 
bells and twelve pomegranates. I^et word and act 
agree, let lip and performance or witness and life 
measure up exactly the same. 

These seven features are the marks and guiding posts 
for that difficult thing — a true and faithful witnessing 
for holiness. If we observe them we shall do well. 

Of course, there will be opposition to this plan of 
God for taking the world. What divine plan and 
work is not opposed ? This has ever been seen and 
will be witnessed until the Great Rebellion of the 
Universe shall be put down, and men's lives flow into 
channels of the divine will. 

Satan will naturally oppose a plan that has suc- 
ceeded so well, and is destined to bring the nations to 
the knowledge of the truth. Fearing the life and 
flaming witness, he would stifle utterance, lock the 
jaws of God's people and fill them with dumb devils. 
How Christ used to love to cast them out! " I charge 
thee, thou dumb spirit, . . come out of him." And 
he had to come! 

The world opposes the plan, while recognizing its 



134 TH ^ SANCTIFIED UFE. 

wisdom and adopting it as a method of pushing and 
increasing its own vast business and colossal fortunes. 
The merchant who fills one of his agents with facts 
about the trade and fires him with the prospect of a 
larger salary and possible partnership, does identically 
what Christ has already done, and yet fails to see his 
own inconsistency. 

A formal church opposes the divine plan, because 
to a cold, stiff ecclesiasticism a joyous, ringing testi- 
mony is unpalatable and offensive. It would be hard 
to describe the pain endured by such a body of people 
when suddenly brought face to face with a demonstra- 
tive type of piety, and compelled to listen to clear-cut 
religious experiences of happy and triumphant char- 
acter. Such things are not desired in many places. 
Graveyards as a rule are very quiet. 

The backslider is against the divine plan. The 
reason is easily fathomed. There is no kind of speech 
that is more painful, that will more quickly bring 
misery and condemnation to the spiritually lapsed 
man than the bright, joyous witnessing of God's 
sanctified people. It cuts deeper than a Damascus 
blade. It reminds the faithless one of departed joys 
and glory. It is a picture of what he himself used 
to be. So, as the merry carolling of birds is a torture 
to a miserable man, so the wretchedness of the back- 
slider is intensified in listening to the joyful and vic- 
torious experience of his unfallen brother. 



WITNESSING. 135 

So, in view of all these opposing forces we may 
look for an array of reasons urged by the opposition, 
as to why we should oe silent, while they in great 
apparent friendliness tell us to keep our counsel, to say 
less and do more, live what we have, possess but do 
not profess, etc., etc., etc. 

There is not an argument which they thus use 
against the testifying to sanctification but could be 
promptly urged against regeneration or any other of 
the Christian doctrines, and indeed Christianity itself. 

A prominent man in our church said that as soon 
as he heard a man say he was sanctified, he doubted 
it at once, on the principle that he would question a per- 
son's truth in his mind when he went around claiming to 
be honest. How strange it was that the wide difference 
of the two speeches did not impress him. One being 
a boasting of self, the other a glorying of a work of 
God. 

From this and all other confusing speeches of op- 
position we must turn to God's Word both in the Old 
and New Testaments, where we are told that we are 
to be witnesses. As such we are to press on the di- 
vinely appointed way, whether men smile or frown, 
meet us with garlands or greet us with stones. 

The failure to carry out God's plan in regard to a 
clear-cut testimony of what He has done to us and is 
now to us, is certain to bring spiritual darkness and 
calamity. Very long and sorrowful indeed is the list 



I36 THE SANCTIFIED UFK. 

of preachers and laymen, men and women, who pos- 
sessed the blessing of sanctification, hid the talent in 
a napkin, tried to live the experience, toned it 
down in various ways to suit family, friends and 
church, until at last they awoke to see the star had 
disappeared, the angels had vanished into the skies, 
and the glory had departed. 

If we follow faithfully the divine plan of witness- 
ing, not only with the life but the lips, certain gracious 
and blessed results will be felt at once to arise and 
increase as the days go by. 

One will be a sense of increased light and gladness 
with every occasion of witnessing. Each time the 
duty is performed the Spirit will smile upon the soul 
well pleased. 

Another result will be a growing freedom or sense 
of religious liberty. 

A third effect will be a consciously increasing 
strength. 

A fourth will be the arousing of conviction on the 
subject all about you. The testimony may be mod- 
estly and simply given, but if uttered clearly and 
unctiously it will never fail, but hearts will be stirred, 
and souls set to panting after this great grace of 
God. The song will reach the heart, the arrow will 
strike the mark, the testimony in a word will never 
fall to the ground. God will take care of it. 

What was once said by an aged sanctified lady at 



WITNESSING. 137 

a large camp ground was never forgotten by a young 
preacher who heard her that morning, but prepared 
the way for the blessing which he received years after- 
ward. Many hundreds of such instances could be 
related. 

A fifth result is that contemplated by the Lord in 
the spread of His truth and knowledge over the world, 
and the nations brought to live at His feet. 

In Jerusalem the Latins and Greeks have a custom 
annually of obtaining what they call Holy Fire from 
the reputed sepulchre of our Lord. For hours they 
in great crowds watch the orifice from which they 
expect the outbursting flame. At last, when thousands 
are keyed to the highest pitch of expectancy, the flame 
is seen darting out of the crevice of the tomb, when 
with great shouts and cries the people rush toward it 
with tapers, candles, torches, and crowding and fall- 
ing over one another, try to ignite what they bear in 
their hands. As soon as this is done they rush away 
in every direction, some on foot, others on horseback f 
waving their flambeaux and multiplying their lights 
an hundred and a thousand fold as others come in 
touch with them ; so that in the course of a few hours 
the landscape is dotted with myriads of twinkling 
fires, the country looks as if a glittering firmament 
had fallen upon it, and the Holy Fire is scattered 
everywhere. 

So we are to take fire under Christ, and burn all 



I38 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

the more brightly as we run; and we are to scatter 
the fire as we go, preaching, teaching, praying, sing- 
ing, shouting and testifying. Sparks from us should 
kindle others. We should have flame enough in our 
own souls and tongues to set every cold church and 
dead community blazing all over the land. Fire 
ought to fall as we preach, and scatter as we witness. 
Through us extinguished human torches should flame 
again, and new lives glow that never burned before. 
As we go through life thus faithful to Christ the fire 
will fall, and as it comes down on us it will spread 
through us to individuals, homes, neighborhoods, 
cities and countries. Long lines of enkindled men 
and women will move across the world in every direc- 
tion, igniting millions of others, until at last the 
darkness will be driven away through an army of 
heavenly torch-bearers, a heavenly firmament of truth 
will be seen scintillating and sparkling down on the 
face of the earth and God's holy fire will be flaming 
everywhere. 



CHAPTER XI. 

GOOD WORKS. 

OATH* tells us to be ''careful to maintain good 
works. ■ ■ They are not simply advisable but essen- 
tial in several important particulars. Salvation comes 
by faith alone, but salvation will not remain if we 
neglect good works. The experience of sanctification 
does not put us where we do not need to discharge 
them. This would be akin to antinomianism. It is 
incumbent on the sanctified man to maintain good 
works, if he would retain a clear and gracious ex- 
perience. 

What are good works ? They are not necessarily 
church works. There is a difference, and in many in- 
stances a very great difference. In a certain sense 
church works are necessary, and in them we find most 
excellent people actively engaged. 

By church works we mean building and repair- 
ing ; carpeting, cushioning and ornamenting the 
house of God, purchasing a larger organ, elevating 
the spire, bronzing the doors, staining the windows, 
and doing many other like things too numerous to 
mention. 

It is evident to any one that, while some of these 

m 



140 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

things are necessary and excellent in their way, yet 
they could not be called spiritual works. Unconverted 
people without a particle of grace in their souls could 
easily perform them. Indeed, all of us have known 
men and women prominent in this kind of work, who 
showed by their spirit, conversation and life, that 
they knew not God, and possessed not the mind or 
salvation of Christ. 

We are not commanded to do these things in the 
Bible, for the same reason perhaps, that we are not or- 
dered to feed and clothe ourselves. We need no urging 
to build ourselves houses, and after that beautiful 
church homes. 

On the other hand, Good Works are enjoined fre- 
quently. Great stress is laid upon them, for it is 
made clear in the Scriptures that much depends on 
their performance. To crown all, they alone are 
mentioned at the Day of Judgment. Let the reader 
turn to Matt. xxv. and get some idea of what works 
are good and worthy of reward in the estimation of 
the Son of God. Certainly they must be important 
when after the world is burned up and Time has ended 
these are the only things mentioned before the Throne. 

Think of it ! the only things. Listen to what they 
are — feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, 
clothing the naked, remembering the stranger, visit- 
ing the sick, and going to the prisoner. 

Not a word about great military exploits and states- 



GOOD WORKS. t<I 

manlike deeds ! Not a single allusion to that kind of 
public greatness so dear to the hearts of many ! Not 
even a word about the building of churches and all 
the performances known as church work. 

Suppose the words of the Judge at that day were : 
"Well done; for ye built a beautiful church with a 
lofty spire and pealing organ. Ye gave great enter- 
tainments and floored the church with brussel carpets, 
stained the windows with gorgeous colors, and made 
them resplendent with the figures of the saints.' 9 If 
such were the words uttered, how many unconverted 
and unspiritual members of the church would stand 
honored, crowned and rewarded at the Judgment. 
But no such words will be heard. And first for the 
reason that these are simply church works. Next, that 
instead of being Good Works, they can be discharged 
from sheer selfish motives. It is an instinct with a 
bird to make its nest as soft and pleasant as possible. 
The very pig in the sty roots up the mud to make 
a bed comfortable and satisfactory to himself. And 
cushioned pews and carpeted aisles may be nothing 
more in the sight of God than what we see done by 
the animal, save as the man can work with greater 
elegance and more artistic finish than a pig. 

One thing is certain, that the Lord knew there was 
no need to command people to make beautiful and 
comfortable churches. This they would do for their 
own comfort. It is a physical pleasure to worship in 



142 THK SANCTIFIED UFE. 

a nicely furnished church edifice. In addition to the 
selfish instinct we can also see that ecclesiastical pride 
may be at the bottom of much that is called church 
work. The tapering spire may be built to tower 
above the belfry of a sister denomination. The deep- 
toned organ may be purchased with a secret pleasure 
that it out- thunders the choir of another church. So 
it is readily seen why none of these things are men- 
tioned as a cause of approval and reward at the 
Judgment. Church works are not necessarily Good 
Works. 

Let it not be supposed that we do not believe in 
handsome temples of worship for God, and in the 
doing of all those things in the line of glass, paint and 
carpet to keep up the material side of the visible king- 
dom of God. We mean to say that these works can 
be performed by unconverted people, can be done with 
God thrust out of the heart and life, and from motives 
that instead of pleasing would be highly offensive to 
Heaven. These may, in a sense, be called Good 
Works, but they are not those that are mentioned 
before the Throne. Happy the man who can abound 
in both, but if we had to select we would choose the 
deeply spiritual labor rather than that kind of work 
which can be performed by worldly hearted members 
of the church. We would far rather help the poor 
than pay for stained glass or a memorial window. 

It is well to remember that the Bible Good Works 



GOOD WORKS. 143 

of feeding the poor, visiting the sick and prisoners 
have their spiritual side. God knew, and we all 
know, that the person who does these things will not 
forget or neglect the soul. It now becomes necessary 
to show the superiority of Good Works, and why they 
alone are mentioned in the Great Day of Rewards. 

One thing about them is that they prove our faith. 
James says distinctly that our faith without works 
is dead. Of course, he referred to Good Works. 
That church works do not prove faith will be readily 
admitted. All of us who have seen unconverted 
people help in this line of labor will quickly admit 
that. The writer has known the most thoroughly 
worldly people prominent in what is called church 
work. Any preacher knows that this kind of fussy 
activity and spirituality are not synonymous. Such 
things do not prove that Christ is living in one. But 
let a person be seen visiting the sick, going to pray 
with prisoners, and relieving the necessity of the 
suffering, and such a life declares the genuine faith. 

Again Good Works convict the world. None of us 
ever knew of a sinner smiting his breast and saying, 
11 God be merciful to me a sinner," because some man 
painted a church or carpeted the floor. But it is mar- 
velous how the sight of a man feeding the hungry, 
clothing the naked, visiting the sick and exercising 
hospitality to the stranger will convince the mind and 
move the heart of the most careless, concerning the 



144 TH ^ SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

facts and truth of the Gospel of the Son of God. 
Somehow such a life convicts. One reason may be is 
that it reminds one so much of Christ. The Man of 
Galilee is projected before us again doing good. 

Still again Good Works bless the world. We 
might multiply church steeples and organs, stain 
every window and paint every rectory and parsonage, 
but the world's suffering and heart-brokenness would 
be just the same. Such things do not put bread in 
starving mouths or wipe tears from overflowing eyes. 
Perhaps there is an added bitterness to the pang of 
the ragged, starving wretch, as he glances at some of 
our elegant sanctuaries, where the bronzed doors alone 
cost enough to satisfy the hunger and clothe the 
shivering bodies of many thousands. lonely, home- 
less, friendless, the poorly dressed and desperate man 
hardly feels that he would be welcome in some of our 
luxurious abodes of worship. So he slinks by the 
marble stepped entrance into the cold dark street be- 
yond, the very inscription in the guarded vestibule, 
" Come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile/' reading 
like a mockery 

On the other hand, it is impossible to do the tilings 
that Christ mentions at the Judgment without bene- 
fitting, cheering and blessing mankind. Bread and 
clothing given mean hunger and cold removed ; visit- 
ing the sick means sympathy, consolation, and heart 
burdens rolled away ; while coming to the prisoner is 



GOOD WORKS. 145 

not only the lighting up of a dreary cell but often- 
times the salvation of a despairing soul. 

Again, Good Works bless the worker. It is won- 
derful how the soul can remain narrow, cold and 
undeveloped in simple church work. But we chal- 
lenge any one to do the six things mentioned by 
Christ as Good Works without feeling the heart put 
in a flame and the spiritual nature sweeten, expand 
and become more and more Christ-like with a rapidity 
that will not only astonish the person himself, but 
those who look upon him. 

We read once of a member of a church who had 
been careless in regard to this kind of spiritual activ- 
ity. He had a habit of fretting and fault-finding. 
He saw very little good in anything, was skeptical 
in regard to the sincerity of bright testimonies which 
he heard in experience meetings, and was greatly given 
to arguing about non-essentials. One Sunday morning 
his pastor preached on Heaven. Immediately the 
combative, skeptical spirit arose and he said: "You 
speak of heaven, but can you give me any idea as to 
the location, whether in the center of the universe or 
close by us in our own solar system? " 

The pastor replied : M I will give you my views at 
another time. Let me now speak to you about some- 
thing else. Do you see yonder little house on the 
hill?" 

" Yes/* replied the man. 



I46 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

"Well, in there lives a woman, poor, sick and 
helpless. She needs coal, food and consolation. I 
wish you could drop in a few minutes some time and 
see her." 

That very afternoon this gentleman, who was 
a man of some means, went to the little house. With 
him he had brought certain things in the shape of 
fuel and provisions. He sat an half hour by the side 
of the invalid, read a chapter in God's Word, sung a 
hymn, and kneeling down prayed with her. On leav- 
ing he placed a five dollar bill in her hand. The next 
day he met his pastor on the street and calling him 
aside said : 

"I asked you yesterday where heaven was. You 
need not tell me. I have found out. Do you see that 
little house on the hill? Well, it is there! I found 
it there yesterday afternoon as I talked and prayed 
with a sick woman ; and it is also in my heart." 

We remember to have read of a Christian who 
was once active and happy in the service of God. 
For some reason he discontinued his Good Works, and 
soon after became a prey to gloomy and despondent 
reflections. After a farther lapse of time he became 
morose, bitter, wished to die, and one day while sitting 
alone before the fire in his room determined to kill 
himself. He concluded to die by hanging, and so 
went down the street and purchased a small rope for 
the ghastly deed. He placed the rope in his overcoat 



GOOD WORKS. 147 

pocket, and was so anxious to expedite matters that 
he took a near cut back to his hotel along a narrow 
street lined with wretched-looking tenement houses, a 
route he never remembered to have gone before. As 
he was passing one of the most poverty-stricken of all 
the dwellings, a cry of such misery and despair came 
through a window that he stopped, and hearing it 
repeated walked into the hall, and from thence 
through an open door into a room, where his eyes be- 
held as much wretchedness to the square yard as he had 
ever seen, read or heard of before. A man had just 
breathed his last on a miserable pallet of straw in the 
corner. He looked as if he might have died from 
starvation. A woman with the same starved look 
hung over him with the desolate cry that had been 
heard. The room had nothing in it save the straw 
pallet, a crazy-looking chair and table and a box in 
the corner in which two children were huddled to 
keep warm. There was no covering on the floor, nor 
curtains to the windows, nor fire in the empty grate. 
The cold wind was blowing at a great rate through a 
broken window pane. The woman looked sick and 
pale, while the children ragged, cold and hnngry, 
filled the eyes with tears at the first sight. 

Our friend with the suicidal intent only paused a 
moment to take in the mournful scene, and darted out 
on benevolent mission. In a few minutes he had a fire 
burning cheerily in the grate, and food abundant 



I48 THB SANCTIFIED UFE. 

smoking on the table. He had the dead cared for, 
and a good bed brought in for the living. In a short 
while he had physician and nurse, for he was a man 
of means, and purchased other things that were needed 
for health and comfort. As he surveyed the changed 
room, the children eating before the comfortable fire 
the metamorphosis was great. And all this pleasing 
change had been effected by a servant of God with a 
little money. 

He had bought a large blanket to hang up before 
the window to keep out the chilly blast, and his last 
act before leaving was to hang it in place. Finding 
some difficulty in doing this, he felt in his overcoat 
pocket and found a rope. Immediately he tied the 
corners of the blanket with it and hung the piece of 
goods then easily and successfully. After this he left 
the room and house, and pursued his way to his room. 
As he sat before the fire meditating there was a sweet, 
happy feeling warming his heart that he had not felt 
for months. But suddenly remembering that he was 
going to hang himself he put his hand into his coat 
pocket for the rope and lo, it was gone ! At once he 
recalled that he had tied it to the blanket in the tene- 
ment house. But this was not all the surprise, for on 
looking into his heart he found now that he did not 
want to die. Thus once more in the work of doing 
good he had tasted the real sweetness of life, and knew 
now why he ought to live, and above all how to live. 



GOOD WORKS. 149 

So, he did not die, but lived. We repeat it with 
great emphasis and significance — he lived ! 

Fifth. Good Works comfort us in a dying hour. 
All of us will have to die. When that trying moment 
comes, we may be sure that the thought which will be 
sweetest will be the recollection of the good we have 
done in the name and in the spirit of Jesus. As 
Jennie Deane said to the Queen of England as she 
plead for her sister's life: "Ah, madam, when we 
come to die, it is not what we have done for ourselves, 
but what we have done for others that we love to 
think of most pleasantly." 

Happy is the man who, propped up on a dying pil- 
low, can look down a long line of men and women 
whom he has fed, clothed, warmed, cheered and 
helped in different ways. May we all have such glad 
memories at that trying hour. 

It is said that during the Crimean War a Russian 
officer was patrolling the lines on a bitterly cold night, 
when he came across a sentinel thinly clad and almost 
freezing in the piercing blast. At once the officer 
took off his overcoat and wrapped it about the soldier. 
Next day there was a terrible battle and many thou- 
sands were killed and wounded. Among the latter 
was the young officer whose life blood was fast gush- 
ing away on the bare ground and under a bleak sky. 
Friends were bending over him as he rambled uncon- 



150 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

sciously in his mind. Suddenly he opened his eyes 
and looking upward gasped in glad accents : 

" The Saviour is coming for me." 

There was a moment's silence as he still gazed 
steadily upward, when with a look of astonishment and 
a great light flashing over his face and a strange, 
sweet smile on his lips he cried : 

"Why he has the overcoat on I gave to the 
soldier." 

In another moment the noble spirit was gone, but 
what an inexpressibly, beautiful truth was left us, 
that Christ comes to us in the moment of death 
clothed with the Good Works we have done in His 
name. 

Sixth. Good Works will affect our reward in 
heaven. Through faith we obtain a title and en- 
trance into heaven, but our Works, the Good Works 
that are the fruit of a saving faith, settle the fact of 
our moral grade and position in the world of glory. 
Paul says in Corinthians that those whose works are 
of such a character that they shall be burned up, that 
they will be saved as by fire, but will themselves suffer 
loss. And here is the loss, not of heaven itself, for 
he says they will be saved though as by fire. The 
loss will be seen in reward, for the Bible says, " Every 
man shall be rewarded according to his works." 

A mere glance at the glorified bodies of the re- 
deemed will show what each one did for God on earth. 



GOOD WORKS. 151 

As one star differeth from another star in glory so also 
shall be the resurrection of the dead. There will be 
no need for a trumpet-like proclamation that the 
universe may know what men and women achieved 
and suffered for Christ. The flashing crown, lustrous 
body, superior authority, the rule over ten cities instead 
of five or one ; these and other things as unmistakable 
will be the heavenly language or method of declaring 
how we have endured, and conquered, and what we 
have done and become for God 



CHAPTER XII. 

FASTING — TITHES— AND DRESS. 

IN Ezekiel's prophecy of the great coming blessing of 
holiness to the church, he gives us some striking 
marks and characteristics of the people of God under 
the transforming grace of that time. 

He says among other things that they will "walk 
in my statutes/' and "keep my judgments and do 
them." In other words, they will rigidly and faith- 
fully obey the commandments of God. 

It is remarkable how careless God's regenerated 
children are in regard to some of the divine statutes. 
We do not mean that they live criminally or go into 
gross sin, and yet there are some " statutes" they do 
not observe as they should. When first converted 
they were careful to keep all ; how tender was the 
conscience, how careful to please Heaven at every 
step, and in little things as well as great things. 
But after a few months or years there comes the 
letting down, and the talk of M freedom/ * and be- 
coming " broader," etc. The Sabbath was kept holy 
for months after their conversion, and then by and by 
the tender feeling that it is " The Lord's Day" seems 
to pass away and we see in letter writing, social visits, 



FASTING — TITHES — AND DRESS. 1 53 

carriage drives, and car travel that it is no longer 
"holy/' as it used to be. Some even go to their 
stores to write business letters or straighten up shelves, 
some go to the Post-office for mail, and certain articles 
are purchased on the Sabbath without a pang of con- 
science, when the time was that it could not be done. 

This one instance is given to show what we mean 
by God's children becoming careless about keeping 
His statutes. 

It is so blessed to feel that God has a blessing or 
work of grace for His people which when it comes upon 
them will perpetuate the tenderness and quickened 
spiritual sensibility received at the time of regener- 
ation. That when the I/>rd takes the "stone out of 
the heart," and "puts His Spirit in us," that then as 
Kzekiel says, God's servants, now purified, fired, filled 
and established, will "walk in His statutes," and 
"keep His judgments and do them." It brings the 
soul into a life of perpetual faithfulness. There will 
be no let-down as long as the grace itself is kept. 

Not only will the commandments be faithfully 
kept, but statutes and teachings of the Kingdom that 
are regarded as secondary and less important, and often 
overlooked by the regenerated or carelessly dropped, 
will be faithfully observed by the truly sanctified. 
One of these is 

FASTING. 

It is remarkable how few Christians practice this 



154 TH E SANCTIFIED UFB. 

means of grace. It has become burdensome. It was 
too great a trial to the flesh. It was a painful blow 
aimed at the kitchen god. So the weekly fast was 
changed into a quarterly meeting means of grace, then 
finally discontinued altogether. The plea of physical 
weakness and a sick headache was made. Ultimately 
the argument was urged of having becoming " freer" 
and " broader." And so the fast day ceased. 

All this is done in the face of the fact that fasting 
is enjoined in the Scriptures ; that the prophets fasted, 
that Jesus Christ fasted, and that He said some things 
would not come out except by fasting and prayer. In 
His Sermon on the Mount He tells how to do when 
we fast that we might not appear unto men to fast. 
The Pharisees were not condemned for fasting, but for 
doing it in a way to obtain human notice and praise. 
Like all of God's statutes, it brings benefit to the 
physical man as well as to the soul. To fast once a 
week is a benediction to the body, a help to the mind 
as well as grace to the soul. 

We do not mean that one should go without food 
for twenty-four hours. This we believe would in 
many cases produce sickness or a condition of help- 
lessness. God does not want us to unfit ourselves for 
home duties and His service. The sacrifice of a single 
meal once a week can be gone through with by most 
Christians, not only without injury to body or work, 
but will bring a blessing to soul, body and work. 



FASTING — TITHES — AND DRESS. 1 55 

In case that the constitution is so feeble or peculiar 
that even a single meal can not be given up, then let 
abstinence be practiced, that is, some favorite dish be 
refrained from at a certain time. 

We repeat, that many Christians have given up 
fasting, but we know a certain body of sanctified 
people all over the United States who are as regular to 
observe Friday morning as a fast day as they remem- 
ber the Sabbath to go to worship. They have found 
out, as Christ said, not only that some things will not 
come out except by fasting, but also that some things 
will not come down without this duty. 

We have been engaged in meetings where for days 
people had prayed for the descent of the Spirit and 
the breaking up time, when it would occur to us to 
appoint a fast, and lo ! on the next day or next serv- 
ice the power would fall, and the altar would be filled 
with convicted men and women. 

The sanctified people have also found out that 
fasting always brings a blessing to the soul. It may 
not be felt on the day of self-denial, but it is certain 
to come on the next with a sense of increased light, 
strength and peace. 

Another duty we would mention is seen in the 
matter of 

TITHES. 

This was an ancient religious custom or law, as we 
see Abraham paying tithes to Melchisedec. It was 



156 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

thoroughly established in the Levitical Economy, and as 
far as we can see has never been revoked. A liberty 
peculiar to the Gospel is allowed Christians to increase 
the amount if desired, while all feel that if the Jew 
was willing to give his God one- tenth of his substance, 
surely a Christian should love his Saviour enough not 
to give less than a tenth. 

Christianity does not put an end to giving so far as 
we have studied it in the Gospel and in life. As soon 
as Zaccheus was saved he gave half of his goods to 
the poor, while the followers of Christ after the Bap- 
tism of the Holy Ghost sold their possessions and laid 
the money at the apostles' feet for general distribution. 

A niggardly sanctified man is an anomaly. We 
can not but question whether the Baptism of Fire has 
ever touched his soul as we observe the tight grasp he 
has upon his pocket-book under the various calls of God. 

It has been a question with some as to what 
is a tenth. Does the Scripture mean a tenth of a 
man's income, or a tenth of what is left of the 
annual income after paying all expenses ? 

This last query is calculated to make one smile, 
for with many nothing is left after expenses, and it is 
easy to run the expenses up to take in all the income, 
and so leave nothing for God. 

The truth is that one-tenth of the income should 
be given to the Lord's cause. One- tenth should be 
considered a part of one's expenses ; only it should be 



PASTING— TITHES— AND DRESS. 1 57 

regarded as peculiarly sacred as due the Lord, and 
hence faithfully paid. For instance, if the income of 
the farm, store or office, or the salary or wages be one 
thousand dollars a year, one hundred dollars of that 
belongs to God. We have no right to let our house- 
hold expenses go into that sacred tenth. 

It is best to keep an account with God in this 
matter. It will not do to trust to memory, or give 
spasmodically. The result of doing this way is that 
God is cheated out of His part, and the religious 
experience of the brother who abhors rules becomes 
as fitful as his giving. 

There is a double blessing to the Christian who 
faithfully tithes his money — a spiritual and a temporal 
blessing. A man need only enter upon the practice 
to find them both. It makes the soul fair fat and 
flourishing to give regularly and systematically to 
God. And He who blessed the land and flocks of the 
Jews when they honored the Ix>rd with their sub- 
stance, blesses us just as truly in basket and store to- 
day for the observance of the same duty. 

Recently we heard a sanctified preacher say that 
for years he has been giving a tenth of all he makes 
to God, and that as a strange result, which had 
never been before, he is now never out of money, 
that he always has some in his purse and in the 
house. This sounded like an Old Testament echo 
when the wise man told God's people, M Honor the 



I58 THE SANCTIFIED UFB, 

Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of 
all thine increase : so shall thy barns be filled with 
plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new 
wine." It is true we are not to give to God in order 
to be materially blessed, but we will be thus blessed 
nevertheless. 

It is the thought of what God has done for us in this 
world, and the sight of Christ hanging on the cross 
dying for us, and the contemplation of the blessed and 
beautiful heaven provided for us that should send a 
rush of grateful love through every Christian heart 
and make us only too glad to give to him and thus 
relieve the burdened soul. 

Wesley gave far more than a tenth, and we know 
others like him who give more than that amount. Let 
us see to it as sanctified people that we will not give less 
than a tenth. We will not regret it in this life, nor 
at the Judgment, nor in heaven. 

A third neglected or overlooked duty is seen in 

DRESS. 

The subject was presented with force by the Spirit 
at the time of conversion, but from lack of teaching 
and example the impression wore off, and to-day it is 
hard to tell the church member from the mere world- 
ling when it comes to a difference in attire. 

The Bible is clear in its commands and demands 
here. The Spirit as well writes these things upon 
truly awakened and regenerated souls. But people 



FASTING — TITHES— AND DRESS. 1 59 

speak of " changed times/ ■ and the " nineteenth cen- 
tury/' and "freedom" and becoming "broad/ 1 and 
so the Word is ignored and the Spirit is refused a 
hearing. 

The child of God ought not to dress like the child 
of the world. Reason is against it, conscience is 
against it, and the Word of God is unmistakable. 

For a withering, sarcastic description of the dress 
of fashion let the reader turn to Isaiah, chapter iii., 
verses 16-24. We see the same spectacle to-day on 
our streets. 

In I. Timothy, chapter ii., verses 9 and 10, Paul 
speaks of the question of dress and protests against 
"braided (or plaited) hair," "gold" " pearls' ' and 
"costly array." 

In I. Peter, chapter iii., verse 3, Peter condemns 
the three things of " plaiting the hair/' "wearing of 
gold " and " putting on of apparel," evidently costly 
apparel. 

We certainly have enough Revelation on the sub- 
ject, and yet to press these duties upon many congre- 
gations to-day would be to raise a perfect storm of 
ridicule and indignation. 

We thank God that according to Ezekiel there is a 
work of grace, which when received by the child of 
God makes him or her "walk in his statutes" and 
11 do his judgments." To obtain the blessing of 
sanctification is to regulate at once the dress. 



l6o THE SANCTIFIED UPB. 

The writer found it impossible to keep a handsome 
and valuable gold watch ticking in his vest pocket 
while people are dying for lack of bread through the 
world, and heathen are without Bibles and preachers 
to tell them the good news of salvation. He has 
known many ladies to take the diamonds out of their 
ears and turn them into missionary money or help 
therewith a Home for the Fallen. 

At this point we can not but recall the story of a 
prominent woman in the nobility, who gave up from 
conscientious scruples two valuable diamonds. She 
had a hospital built with the proceeds for the fallen of 
her sex. At certain times she visited the wards, and 
one day was ministering religious comfort to a dying 
woman in one of the cots. She was sitting by the side 
of the bed when the dying woman looking up at her 
said: "Ah, Madam, but for you I would not have 
had this quiet, home-like place in which to die, and 
more than that, I would not have been prepared to 
die. But you taught me here, and you have led me 
to Jesus, and I am going to Him now through what 
you have done." Then raising herself up partially, 
she bent over the hand of her benefactress, and, in im- 
printing a kiss thereon, let two large crystal tears drop 
upon it The next moment she fell back dead upon 
her pillow. 

The lady sat silent and awed a few minutes, looking 
down at the peaceful face before her, when lifting up 



FASTING — TITHES — AND DRESS. l6l 

her hand she noticed the two tears still glistening 
upon it. At once a sweet smile flashed over her 
face and looking upward, she said : "Lord, you have 
sent me back my two diamonds, and they are so much 
lovelier and precious than when I gave them to you." 

Somehow we feel that Christ could not dress as we 
have seen some of His servants do in the midst of the 
physically and spiritually starving millions of earth. 

But there is another side to this question. There 
can be and have been experiences in the dress question 
that are to be deplored. Poor human nature in 
reforms is so apt to go as far the opposite way as it 
had gone in another. Like a milkpan when tilted, at 
once rushes back as far the other way, so we have 
seen a like principle at work with people who try to 
rectify and redeem the past and get right. 

We therefore have looked at two extremes in the dress 
question — fashion's folly and the folly of fanaticism. 
The extreme of Fashion makes a woman look like an 
animated show window, and the extreme of Fanaticism 
makes a female look like a bean pole with a gunny 
sack wrapped around her. Both are scare-crows,— one 
gaudy, the other homely. 

There is a lovely middle ground somewhere, and it 
is not the ground of compromise. There is a quiet, 
tasteful, becoming way of dressing that we believe 
will be pleasing to God as well as to man. 

We do not think that it is for us to tell people that 



l62 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

they must all buy their goods from the same bolt of 
cloth, and that in the face of all the different ranks 
and conditions of life. One kind of dress is needed for 
the factory and another for the store. Nor do we 
think that any of us have a right to dictate to people 
how to cut and wear the goods which they in the love 
and fear of God have purchased for themselves. 
Some people would make their own taste a law or 
standard for everybody else, and so cause the whole 
race to look like a charity school or orphan asylum 
with the same kind of checked apron on, and hair all 
combed the same way. 

We have a right to protest against rich and ex- 
travagant dressing, for the Bible condemns it ; but 
when the people of God are dressing conscientiously 
we must allow them liberty in many respects, and 
remember that they have light, as well as the brother 
and sister with the rigid ascetic and hermitic notions. 

A wise man has truly said that the best way to do 
in this matter is to dress so as not to be conspicuous 
either way. 

The Word of God, the Spirit of God, a good taste 
and sound common sense will all help us in this 
disputed question, and bring us to a conclusion that 
will please God, and satisfy us, although it may not 
content the self-constituted milliners of the church. 

Still the fact remains that to become sanctified will 
be to have a wonderful change of mind and feeling 



FASTING — TITHES — AND DRESS. 1 63 

about dress. And the sweet simplicity of Jesus Christ 
in us will bring forth something corresponding in our 
garb and habiliments. Men laugh at Quaker simplicity, 
but it is notable that in great revivals, when the Spirit 
of God comes with unobstructed power, that analogous 
reforms in dress are invariably seen. So with the rise 
of Methodism, and the later rise of the Salvation Army, 
the simplicity of dress was beheld each time. Is it not 
also significant that in times of great spiritual power in 
religious meetings, that people have been seen by 
scores tearing finery and valuables from their persons 
and giving it all to the church that the Gospel might 
be sent to the dying millions of the heathen world? 

As to the character of goods and price of clothing, 
we must leave these things to the individual conscience 
of the child of God who is living right, and walking 
daily with his Saviour. He will guide them and lead 
them into all truth. 

As for the writer, he tries to dress decently and be- 
comingly in clean linen and spotless black. To him it 
would be a moral impossibility to wear a beaver hat, 
don a broadcloth suit, carry a gold watch and swing a 
gold- headed cane. Yet he would not for the world set 
up his personal taste, and conception of the Bible 
teaching of the dress question as a law and standard 
for others. Instead he would say let each person with 
the Bible before him and Christ in his heart, be fully 
persuaded in his own mind. 



164 THB SANCTIFIED UFE. 

fhe rule is, do not dress so as to be conspicuous 
either way. Do not be a fashionable scare-crow for 
the devil, and do not be a fanatical scare-crow for 
God. Though of the two we would rather be a scare- 
crow for God. Let us dress as the Bible teaches and 
the Spirit directs, and get a tranquil conscience and 
please God, whether we please anyone else or not. 

So to sum up these three overlooked statutes we find 
that when observed they help to make us " a people.' ' 

In fact, Ezekiel declares in connection with what 
we have been writing about that as a result God says, 
11 Ye shall be my people.' ' 

At one time in our lives we wondered why it was 
so difficult to tell God's people from the world's 
throng. Oftentimes we have seen great congregations 
sweeping out of churches into the street, and such was 
the similarity of dress, manner, bearing, conversation, 
and all, that we could not tell the Christian from the 
man of the world. 

Is there not a way by which the difference shall be 
easily manifested ? Are there no lines, marks, habits* 
and moral teachings by which the child of God can at 
once be recognized, and God's people be made to stand 
forth clear and separate from the world's crowd? It 
certainly ought to be so, and Ezekiel says it is so. 
But he states that this separation and recognized differ- 
ence is the result of a divine work of grace upon the 
believer. 



FASTING — TITHES — AND DRESS. 1 65 

The father of the writer owned a Southern plant- 
ation. He had a brand for his cotton bales and a mark 
for his hogs, so there was no trouble in telling his 
property from those of his neighbors. We well 
remember his brand for the cattle. It consisted of two 
large iron letters F. C. attached to a frame and handle 
of like material. The iron brand was heated red hot 
and then applied suddenly to the hind quarters of a 
bullock or heifer. Through scorching hair and shrivel- 
ing skin down went the burning letters into the flesh. 
The cattle would bellow, plunge, and run, but they 
were marked ! The ^F.C." was literally burned into 
them and stayed there. Change of weather never 
affected those letters. Years rolled by, but the mark 
remained. The hair never grew back again over the 
brand. So there was no trouble in telling my father's 
flocks from the other herds that were roaming around. 

Has not God as distinctive a mark for His people ? 
Can He not brand His followers in a way that every- 
body will see that they are the Lord's? 

We thank God for the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
and Fire, for the flame and mark of sanctification 
which burns the letters J. C. (Jesus Christ) upon the 
Christian. It makes a marked crowd. It creates a 
peculiar people. 

Something is done in sanctification that utterly 
spoils God's people for this world. They become out 
and out for God. They make no affinity with Ahab, 



1 66 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

do not go down to Egypt for horses, trust not in 
chariots, but in the living God whom they serve. 

They desire no compromise with sin and the 
world, but " walk in God's statutes/' "keep His 
judgments," pronounce the whole word shibboleth, 
stand up for the entire Gospel, are willing to be 
photographed in the dark, and are ready for heaven 
every moment of their lives. 

Who is willing to be branded, and become God's 
peculiar people, seen and known of all men? May 
the Lord increase His own ten thousand times ten 
thousand, until sin and sinners shall be displaced 
everywhere, and the land redeemed for the possession, 
rulership and enjoyment of Christ and His saints. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MOODS — AFFINITIES — AND IMPRESSIONS. 

TT is blessed to be sanctified, and even more blessed 

to be intelligently sanctified. Happy is the man 
who enjoys the blessing of perfect love in connec- 
tion with an informed mind, experienced head and 
sound judgment. 

He who reads, thinks and compares has always 
an advantage over the thoughtless man or the mere 
creature of impulse. Especially is this seen in the 
sanctified life. Mr. Wesley says that great grace does 
not always mean great light, and so we see very excel- 
lent people being betrayed into grave mistakes and 
doing some very silly and reprehensible things. 

If Satan can not keep the locomotive from leaving 
the depot, he tries to jump aboard and run it. If he 
can not keep us from taking in the heavenly fire, he 
endeavors to introduce false fire. In various ways he 
tries to derail, deflect, side-track and upset the puri- 
fied whom God would bring through lives of great 
usefulness into heaven. 

Then it is to be remembered we are at the bottom 

of a great atmospheric ocean, that we are bundles of 

nerves and sensibilities acted on by persons and things 

167 



1 68 THE SANCTIFIED U?B. 

In a most powerful and puzzling way, and so we need 
to study and know ourselves as well as the great 
grace of God within us. After getting the heart filled 
with the Holy Ghost it is well to get the head filled 
with the very facts and truth that should be there. 
The Bible speaks of grace and knowledge. They go 
well together. 

We ought to understand the experience we pos- 
sess, and comprehend in a measure the physical 
instrument on which it plays, or house in which it 
abides. There are curious cords and connections run- 
ning up and down and through this complex mental 
and physical dwelling like so many bell wires. Some- 
times God rings them, sometimes Satan touches thecord, 
and sometimes it may be only the weather affecting us. 
It is well to understand the different touches ; it would 
save many a mistake and many a heartache. Hence 
that person is well advanced in spiritual wisdom who can 

distinguish here. 

moods. 

Among these fleeting, puzzling feelings are Moods. 
To the recently regenerated and sanctified nothing is 
so startling and terrifying at times. They are ready 
to give up hope and surrender their confidence without 
a reason save that they feel that certain puzzling and 
contradictory frames of mind and conditions of heart 
have taken possession of them, and they think there- 
fore, that they can not be all right. 



MOODS — AFFINITIES — IMPRESSIONS. 1 69 

It is hard at times to account for moods. Bright 
ones may come from an exhilarating breeze and good 
digestion, while dark spells may spring from causes 
far removed from moral agencies, and where the soul 
has been and still is perfectly loyal to God. 

An overflow of animal spirits is not to be re^ 
garded as levity and so repented of. It is simply to 
be watched and quietly controlled and guided as it can 
be. In the regenerated life the overflow is often 
allowed to go almost into a hysterical condition, when 
loud laugh is added to laugh, anecdote follows anecdote 
of mirthful character until spiritual harm is wrought. 

But it is easy for the sanctified to control this 
freshet, and distribute what is really good in itself all 
over the Christian life in even, smooth, irrigating chan- 
nels, and so turn what might have been a disaster into 
a benediction. 

Sad moods are more puzzling to the sanctified. 
Having been told of the everlasting joy of the puri- 
fied they marvel at the pensiveness which steals over 
them at times and sinks them into meditative silence. 

Again we say there need be no sin in this. Some 
melancholy does spring from having done wrong, but 
not every pensive spirit that comes over the sanctified 
heart originates from transgression. On the contrary, 
the feeling we speak of is known to arise when the in- 
dividual is living close to God and in perfect obedience 
to His will. 



170 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

Pensiveness may spring from a high and holy 
state. It must be remembered that this world is not 
the home of the soul. The conditions and environ- 
ments about us are not what are to be when the spirit 
is at its best in the unveiled presence of God. Some 
days as it flutters with indescribable longings and a 
consciousness of unfolded powers against the physical 
limitations, the body feels like a cage to it. The soul 
was made to soar, and here it is shut in by narrow 
walls of clay. It was made for abodes of love, purity 
and heavenly glory, and here it is projected in the 
midst of squalor, ugliness, violence and sin. Then it 
longs to see God. When shall I see my Father's face 
and in His bosom rest ? All this and more will sud- 
denly surge upward in the heart, and the person will 
be noticed with fixed, far-away gaze, and mute lips, 
absorbed in melancholy reverie. A very little thing 
may have brought it about — the stroke of a bell, the 
smell of a wild flower, the coo of a dove, some one 
singing a hymn in the distance, or the sight of a gold 
and crimson sunset. At once the mighty longing 
arose to be away from a world of pain, strife, oppres- 
sion, wrong and sin, and to be with Christ where the 
body will never sicken, the mind never be shocked, or 
the heart wrung again. So was it that David said : 
M Oh, that I had wings like a dove for then would I fly 
away and be at rest ! M So was it Paul said, " I long 
to depart." And so the Saviour Himself seemed to 



MOODS — AFFINITIES — IMPRESSIONS. 1 7 1 

have a homesick feeling sweep for a moment over him 
in the seventeenth chapter of John when He speaks to 
His Father about the glory He had with Him before 
the world was. There is no sin necessarily in this tem- 
porary pensive tinge of the mind. It is only a proof 
of another and better life, of a happier world, and of 
the fact that we have not yet entered upon it. The soul 
is not hurt by such feelings, and they only become sinful 
and injurious when we indulge them to such an extent 
as to lapse into moping, repining, and neglect of duty. 
Somehow the soul is richer for these very moments, 
provided we use them right and they keep us not from 
Christian work. They should bind us all the more to 
the life and world to come. The battle is still on, and 
it is not yet time to lay aside the armor. Paul longed 
to depart and be with Christ, but full of a healthy 
Christian life he said : "Nevertheless, to abide in the 
flesh is more needful for you." And so he remained, 
warning, rebuking, comforting and saving people, and 
like his Lord, going everywhere and doing good. 

AFFINITIES. 

Here is something we approach with considerable 
hesitation. Its very gravity makes us feel that a 
stronger pen should deal with the subject, and there 
is a natural fear of saying either too much or too little 
on the subject. Perhaps it is best to be brief . 

We have all observed that while there is a spirit of 



172 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

love and feeling of general good will among God's 
people, yet there are peculiar friendships and affections 
cherished for a few individuals as distinguished from 
the multitude. These special attachments seemed to 
be based upon, or originate from, consanguinity of 
temperament, similarity of taste and education, same- 
ness of work, and other correspondences. 

Thus far in the case we are still in the realms of 
innocence and see simply the working of natural laws 
in pure lives. All of us feel these natural preferences. 
From these come our best friends. Our Saviour Him- 
self had a closer relation to Peter, John and James, 
and a special fondness for the home at Bethany. 

A Christian writer once said he loved everybody, 
but liked a few. He meant by the word M like M that 
feeling which springs from agreeable fellowship and 
perfect understanding. All of us know what it is to 
love people in a religious way, whose notions, preju- 
dices, habits and conduct make them distasteful and 
offensive to us. We love them, but do not care to 
make companions out of them. While there are 
others no better spiritually, but who possess the smile, 
manner, spirit, tastes, opinions and life we admire, and 
at once we realize the peculiar friendship or affection. 

Thus far, we repeat, there is no wrong or harm 
done. The word of warning is that harm may come. 
Satan is especially wide awake and active at such 
times and places to make harm. 



MOODS — AFFINITIES — IMPRESSIONS. 1 73 

Many lovely Christians have gone unscathed 
through life along this very path. Earth has been 
made brighter, and heaven will be richer for the 
experience. But some have allowed the Adversary to 
trip them, and have fallen by the way, suddenly slain 
like Amasa, while multitudes passing by looked in 
amazement and grief upon the prostrate form that first 
wallowed, then became still, and then was covered up 
by command. After that, says the Bible, the people 
passed on. 

When these " affinities' ■ between the sexes begin 
to make one or the other or both to fret and repine 
over their present providential lot ; when the kindred 
spirit feeling leads to private and public remarks re- 
flecting on one joined to the speaker by laws of God 
and man ; when the affair begets an epistolary corre- 
spondence between the parties that is more frequent 
than home letters ; then peril is near, and sin is in full 
sight. 

It would be very easy to give some ghastly facts 
here, but we, after considerable reflection, feel that it 
is best to leave the subject without further develop- 
ment. 

Suffice it to say that the instincts of a pure heart, 
the general good sense of the world as crystalized in 
public opinion, and the blessed touches and whispers 
of the Holy Spirit will be all-sufficient to guide and 
teach us in this matter as in all others. It should not 



174 T H 3 SANCTIFIED UFE. 

be forgotten, however, that the same Book which 
forbids evil also says, "Abstain from all appear- 
ance of evil." It is not only that evil and the ap- 
pearance of evil are not long separated, but the Lord 
does not want the slightest indication of sin in the life 

of His child. 

impressions. 

Again we approach a most important topic. I^ike 
other things in the spiritual life, it has a true as well 
as a false side. 

There are impressions that come directly from God. 
The Bible teaches this fact, and we are to look for 
them, and obey them when they come. Every spirit- 
ual person knows what it is to be led by the Spirit. 
Glances, touches, gentle movements and impulses from 
Him have been sufficient to stop us or lead forward, 
as the case may be, and we knew beyond all question 
that it was God's own hand on us, His voice within 
us, His Spirit impelling or restraining us that was 
leading us into all truth. How sweet it is to speak 
or be silent, to do or not to do as He inwardly bids 
us ! Very close is such a walk, and very blessed ic 
such a life thus abandoned to the Holy Ghost. 

But there are " impressions ! ' not of God. They 
may come with heavenly garb and religious manner 
and even using the Word of God. Some of these arc 
born in our own hearts, are nurtured by our own fanc- 
ies, and are shaped by our own preferences. Others 



MOODS — AFFINITIES — IMPRESSIONS. 1 75 

come directly from the infernal world. John warns us 
against them. He tells us we are to " try the spirits, 
whether they be of God. ' ' 

So here is the distinct assertion in the Word, that 
different spirits come to the soul, not only the Spirit 
of God, but evil spirits from beneath. If possible, 
^says the apostle, they would " deceive the very elect.* ' 
And there is no question but they have deceived some 
of the elect. 

The idea is, do not suppose every impression is 
from God even though it come in the name of religion. 
Do not think every fancy is God's command ; and that 
every rigid idea and extreme notion is God's desire. 
Many have so thought, and great has been the confu- 
sion in Israel, the trouble to the individual Christian, 
and the joy in hell. 

People have forgotten that Satan was once an angel 
in heaven, that he has seen and been with God, has 
heard Him talk, and can talk like Him. It is wonder- 
ful how He can quote Scripture, how he helps people 
to consecrate, and how willingly he would take charge 
of the Christian life and run it in a way that will 
ultimately side-track or ditch the train. 

We had best not be in too great a hurry with im- 
pressions. The Bible itself teaches us to be careful 
and take time, in the words, " He that believeth shall 
not make haste.' ' The man of true faith will inquire 
of God before taking steps that are full of gravity and 



176 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

importance. Moses and Gideon did not spring to the 
front with the first impression that came to them ; they 
waited for others, found they were of God and then 
went forward irresistibly and triumphantly. 

Some will not do this, but follow every will-of-the- 
wisp hallucination of the mind, and every Jack-o'- 
lantern religious teacher that comes around. 

All of us know people who are ready for the latest 
craze in spiritual things. Like the Athenians they 
are open for every new thing. A strange doctrine, a 
curious physical manifestation, a piece of unneeded 
martyrology, sudden ascetic notions, fanciful interpre- 
tations of Scripture, unnatural conduct at home, a 
desire to lash everybody not thinking or doing as they 
do — all these and many more such things become pre- 
dominant with them, are duly received and acted out, 
and with much assurance attributed to God. 

One expression, "God told me M or ''God im- 
pressed me" is familiar to us all. In one of our 
Western States we heard the sacred, solemn sentence 
uttered so frequently, lightly, unadvisedly, and at 
times so untruly that the heart ached and the soul 
fairly sickened. 

God told one that he could eat breakfast. Though 
why the Lord should speak thus, when nature was 
clamoring through hunger for the same breakfast, 
opened a great field of doubt in the hearer's mind. 
God does not have to tell people to eat, drink and 



MOODS — AFFINITIES — IMPRESSIONS. I ^^ 

sleep, when he has arranged natural voices in the 
body that speak so clearly and unmistakably and know 
so well how to have their wishes attended to. 

Another one left his church. "God told him," 
he said. Afterward, he came back, applied for mem- 
bership and was restored. According to this man the 
Lord had made a mistake. 

A lady known to the writer prepared three bowls 
of hot soup for three tired Christian workers. Just 
as they sat down, had said grace, and were about to 
partake of the warming and palatable repast, this lady 
was suddenly " impressed " to lead in prayer. Down 
they all went on their knees, and as the sister had 
great liberty that afternoon she prayed nearly twenty 
minutes. When they arose the soup was cold, stiff 
and unpalatable. Some with ascetic ideas, and Dark 
Age notions of penance might say God was in the 
matter ; but the writer for one does not so believe. 
He has an idea that He who prepared a warm meal of 
bread and fish on the coals by Lake Galilee for His 
disciples and called them to it, did not object to His 
three tired followers having warm soup on that cold 
afternoon of which we speak, and so did not send the 
"impression M the sister labored under. 

In one of the meetings conducted by the author, a 
lady greatly given to " impressions ' ■ came to him and 
with a most mysterious air whispered that ' * God had 
revealed to her that a certain young Christian worker 



178 THE SANCTIFIED UF3. 

on the ground was possessed with the devil." In less 
than an hour afterwards this very young man came to 
the writer and said that " God had shown or revealed 
to him that this very old lady was possessed with a 
number of devils." Comment is unnecessary. 

In New England we saw a man who was placarded 
all over with Scripture texts, and religious [phrases. 
The word " Time " was written on one leg, the word 
" Eternity " on the other. " Sin," as I recall, was on 
one arm, " Salvation " on the other. The word tl Re- 
pent' ' was on his back, while lower down the coat 
was " Jesus is coming/ ' 

He said " God impressed him." Many of us did 
not believe a word of it. And as we studied the effect 
on the crowd, we saw not a single person solemnized, 
but people were either lamenting the mistaken act or 
smiling or laughing outright at the spectacle. A few 
days afterward we beheld him on a crowded street in a 
large city. The effect produced on all whom I could 
see, by this belittling and degradation of divine things, 
was most unhappy. Paul speaks of epistles written 
in flesh and blood by the finger of God ; but this man 
made an epistle out of his clothes with a paint brush. 
We never heard of any one being " cut to the heart " 
and " crying out for mercy " to God on beholding this 
strange self-commissioned Gospel advertiser. 

We have received letters asking for certain large 
«ums of money. They said "God told them" to 



MOODS — AFFINITIES — IMPRESSIONS. 1 79 

write and ask us. All this sounded strangely, when 
the Lord knew at the time we did not have over a 
couple of dollars and had no means of raising more. 
Other letters have come in the way of rebuke telling 
us "God impressed them to do so." In them we 
have been told to do what we were already doing, and 
not to do what we were not doing. 

A man in one of our Central Western States had 
been a most powerful and useful minister of the Gos- 
pel. By and by he began to have "impressions." 
One was that marriage was an impure relation. It 
was vain that the " Word " said, " Marriage is honor- 
able among KLiL, and the bed undefiled" ; the "im- 
pression ' ' was bigger than the Bible with him. After 
awhile he put away his wife, and then left his 
children. He had an " impression " that all natural 
affections were wrong, So in obedience to i ' impres- 
sions" he forsook the wife that God told him to 
cleave to, and allowed his forsaken children to strug- 
gle for themselves, when the Book says that a man who 
does not provide for his household is worse than an 
infidel. 

We have known people under "impressions to 
seek for new and strange experiences, when that 
apostolic man, John Wesley, says: "If we seek for 
anything but more love we are certain to land in 
error. 1 ' Alas for it, we have witnessed such landings. 

We have seen people under the plea "God told 



180 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

me M become intolerant, fault-finding intermeddlers 
and busy-bodies. In striking at the V pride of life" 
they developed that most horrible of all forms, spirit- 
ual pride, and did not know it. In a plea for zeal, 
they presented us a Jehu cutting and slashing, instead 
of a Jesus healing and binding up. 

We feel that we could not do a better thing than 
attach a quotation from Mr. Wesley, in regard to 
these very things : 

i. " Watch and pray continually against pride. If 
God has cast it out, see that it enter no more ; it is 
fully as dangerous as evil desire, and you may slide 
back into it unawares, especially if you think there is 
no danger of it. 'Nay, but I ascribe all I have to 
God/ So you may and be proud nevertheless; for it 
is pride not only to ascribe anything we have to our- 
selves, but to think we have what we really have not. 
You ascribe all the knowledge you have to God, and in 
this you are humble. But if you think you have more 
than you really have, or if you think you are so taught 
of God as to no longer need man's teaching, pride lieth 
at the door. Do not, therefore, say to any that would 
advise or reprove you : ' You are blind ; you can not 
teach me.' Always remember, much grace does not 
imply much light. These do not always go together. 
To imagine none can teach you but those who are 
themselves saved from sin is a very great and danger- 
ous mistake. Give not place to it for a moment. It 
will lead you into a thousand other mistakes and that 
irrevocably. Obey and regard them that are over you 
in the Lord, and do not think you know better than 



MOODS— AFFINITIES— IMPRESSIONS. 1 8 1 

they ; know their plan and your own : always remem- 
bering, ( Much love does not imply much light.' 

2. " Beware of that daughter of pride, 'enthu- 
siasm' [meaning fanaticism]. Keep at the utmost 
distance from it ; give no place to a heated imagination. 
Do not hastily ascribe things to God. Do not easily 
suppose dreams, voices, impressions, visions, and reve- 
lations to be from God. They may be from him, they 
may be from nature, they may be from the devil. 
Therefore believe not every spirit, but try the spirits 
whether they be of God. Try all things by the written 
Word, and let all bow down before it. You are in 
danger of enthusiasm every hour if you depart ever so 
little from Scripture ; yea, from the plain literal mean- 
ing of any text taken in connection with the context." 

We can now see why John said, " Try the spirits 
whether they be of God. ■ ' He adds that many false 
prophets have gone out into the world. And Paul 
writes that " In the latter times some shall depart from 
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines 
of devils— forbidding to marry and commanding to 
abstain from meats which God hath created to be re- 
ceived with thanksgiving of them which believe and 
know the truth." 

\Ve are to try the spirits, and always with the 
Word of God. There must be a "Thus saith the 
Lord M for every whisper of the Spirit. God does not 
act contradictorily. He will not say with His Word 
one thing and with His Spirit another. So let us 
bring every impression to the Bible, and there examine 



1 82 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

it. If God's Book tells us to love and cherish our 
families let us do it. If Christ prepares us for hard 
treatment on account of the Truth then do not let us 
become frightened and run at the first sign of being 
martyred. The impression may say, "Fly," but the 
Word says, " I^eap for joy and rejoice when ye are 
persecuted for righteousness* sake." If when we are 
misunderstood, treated coldly, unjustly and cruelly, 
and the impression is strong to return railing for rail- 
ing, criticism for criticism, and abuse for abuse ; before 
we do it let us bring the impression to the Word and 
hear what God says. If the Book reads that we are 
to draw the sword, and give as hard cuts and blows as 
we receive in wrong treatment, then let us do so. 
But what does it say? " Put up thy sword, for they 
that live by the sword shall perish by the sword/' and 
again, " If when ye do well and suffer for it ye take 
it patiently, this is acceptable with God. ' ' 

Iyet us try the " impressions," whether they agree 
with the Word. If they can stand that test, if they 
breathe the spirit of Christ, we can stand by them and 
for them. If the Word is against them, then the 
looner we cast them away, the better it will be for 
nind, body and soul, for family, friends and church, 
md for our present happiness and usefulness, as well 
« salvation to come. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DOUBTS — FEARS — AND FRET 

C VERY form of life has its peculiar enemies. We 
have only to look around us on the animal world, 
notice the flight of birds, and watch the swift rush 
and sparkling leaps of fish from the water, to see that 
on land or sea or in the air every kind of life is in 
danger, and much of the time is spent in flying from 
enemies. 

The intellectual life has its peril ; and diet, medi- 
cine and travel are resorted to for its protection. 

The spiritual life has likewise its adversaries, 
and so the Bible abounds in warnings and directions. 
The sanctified life, with all its superior grace and 
power, is not exempt from danger. Not simply does 
Satan make violent assaults upon such a character, 
and not only does the sanctified man find a peculiarly 
bitter human opposition on his announcement of the 
possession of the grace, but there are formidable foes 
along mental and spiritual lines. Inbred sin is indeed 
cast out and the heart is pure, but the man is still a 
free moral agent and can lose the heavenly light and 
fall, as did Adam in the Garden of Eden. 

One class of these internal foes are,— 



1 84 THE SANCTIFIED UFS. 

DOUBTS. 

It is wonderful how Satan tries to insinuate the 
spirit of doubt again into the soul that has been so 
blessed and filled by a perfect trust in God and His 
Word. He knows that we obtained the great blessing 
by Faith, and so his great battles, his frequent subtle 
attacks are made just at that point. Let the sanctified 
recall the past and see how often he has felt this pecu- 
liar attack made upon his faith. 

The adversary is well aware that if he can get the 
soul to doubting the door of the life is then open for 
him to come in and do as he will. 

Faith is the condition of salvation, the measure of 
salvation and the only means of retaining what we 
have. The Bible says " the just shall live by faith," 
and again "without faith it is impossible to please 
God." 

Doubt is the direct opposite of faith. Faith be- 
lieves every word of God; Doubt does not. Faith 
trusts the Divine Providence, while Doubt laments 
and gives up at every dark shadow. Faith obeys 
God; Doubt disobeys. 

The history of the Fall in Paradise can be traced 
back to Doubt. God had said that if Adam and Eve 
ate of the forbidden tree they should die. Satan said 
they would not die. The man and his wife believed 
Satan and doubted God. With the cherished doubt of 



DOUBTS — FEARS — FRET. 1 85 

course came the sinful act soon after, and they fell. 
The crash of that fall has never ceased to echo and 
re-echo in this and other worlds. They found that 
day when driven out from the divine presence that 
to doubt God is a fearful thing. 

The dreadful ruin of King Saul began with his 
doubting the word of the Lord. God had told him to 
slay a certain Canaanitish nation, men, women, chil- 
dren, animals and all. It was a wise, and scholars will 
tell you that it was a merciful command as well. But 
Saul saw fit not to obey. He obeyed partially, spar- 
ing many of the best looking animals. When Samuel 
met him and asked if he had done what God had 
commanded, he replied that he had. Samuel's re- 
joinder was: "What meaneth then this bleating of 
sheep and lowing of oxen that I hear?" The king's 
reply was that he had spared the best of the cattle for 
sacrifice. Samuel's solemn answer was: "To obey is 
better than sacrifice." Then followed the words that 
God had rejected him for his disobedience. From 
that day the man fell rapidly, until at last, a few 
years afterward, he takes his own life on Mt. Gilboa. 
The ruin began by doubting the word of God; the 
doubt leading to disobedience, and the disobedience to 
his ruin. 

Perhaps nothing could more deeply wound the 
reader of these lines than for a person to doubt his 
word. Men knock each other down for such things. 



1 86 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

To be called a liar is a deep insult. To be said that 
one is unreliable is simply to say they can not be 
trusted, their word can not be taken, that they are 
without character. 

Why is it that as people see these things they do 
not remember them when applied to God. God has a 
Word, God has made promises and threats. He says 
good will come to us if we do right, and trouble, sor- 
row, shame and pain if we do wrong. Whoever goes 
into sin after that simply doubts God. Whoever gets 
discouraged in time of evil opposition doubts God, for 
He said He would deliver us. Whoever gives up his 
religious life and experience because of fears of the 
present and future doubts God, for He said He would 
keep us to the end, and no one should pluck us from 
His hand. In a word, to listen to Satan, sin, tempta- 
tions, evil people, and give heed to a sinking, drooping 
heart, is to doubt God. And to doubt God is a most 
grave and calamitous thing. 

Look at it in any light, and we see that faith is the 
condition of salvation, that we live by it, that we con- 
quer by it, that we please God through it, and that 
Doubt is a heinous thing to allow to enter the mind 
and dwell in the heart. 

We marvel that we hear apologies for doubt; that 
people should get up in public and say ' ' they have so 
many doubts," and sit down as if they had not said 
one of the ghastliest things in the moral vocabulary. 



DOUBTS — FEARS — FRET. 1 87 

God has spoken, but they doubt. God has said cer- 
tain things, but they doubt. God has promised to 
bring His children through every trial and sorrow, 
but they are filled with doubts! 

It is said that Mr. Spurgeon came one evening to 
a meeting of his elders, and rubbing his hands before 
the fire said: "Brethren, I have just gotten the vic- 
tory over some fearful doubts." To his surprise no 
answer was made. So he repeated the sentence, and 
as they were still silent asked them why they said 
nothing. The reply of one of his officers was remark- 
able. He said: 

" Why did you not say as you came in that you 
just had a great victory over an inclination to steal a 
horse? For which is worse, to steal a horse or to 
admit that you doubt God and His Word?" 

Mr. Spurgeon said he never forgot the power of 
that rebuke, for he felt it was true. So may our 
readers be profited by the incident. 

We all have friends and relatives whom no tongue 
nor circumstance could make us doubt. Is not God 
truer, better, more faithful in an infinite degree than 
they ? How, then, can we doubt Him ? 

So let it be understood at once among us as sancti- 
fied people, that because faith is the condition of 
spiritual life and safety, because it is the victory that 
overcometh the world, because by it we please God, 
and because we can not afford to doubt such a Being 



1 88 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

as our Lord, therefore we will not allow doubts of 
Him, of His word to us, His work in us, and His 
promises for the present and future, ever to enter our 
minds and hearts, with their sickening, saddening, 
paralyzing influence again. 

Do not stop to ask how one is to keep doubts out. 
To sanctified people it should be the easiest of things. 

How do people keep snakes out of the hall or 
gallery? They sweep them out into the yard with 
the broom as fast as they would crawl in. So when 
doubts wriggle and squirm towards you, take the 
broom of a resolute will and sweep them out. Say, 
I will not let them in. And if you say that, they 
can not come in. This is exercising faith. Refusing 
to doubt is believing. How simple and blessed! 

FEARS. 

Here is a class of mental states that bear a strong 
family resemblance to doubts. In point of time they 
follow doubts, or are originated by them. There is 
certainly some connection between them, for they are 
always found together. 

To be full of faith is to be full of courage, and to 
doubt is to fear. 

In speaking of fears we are not stating that they 
fill and dominate the sanctified life. On the contrary, 
sanctification if it does anything delivers from fear. 
The Word of God settles this when it declares that 



DOUBTS— FEARS— FRET. 189 

"Perfect love casteth out all fear/' and again, "Ye 
have received not the spirit of bondage again to fear." 
While the view of the disciples after they received the 
Baptism of the Holy Ghost shows them completely 
delivered from fear. Men raged while they rejoiced. 
The Sanhedrim had them scourged, but they preached 
on. The powers of the church threatened them with 
death if they persisted in their Gospel ministry, and 
the reply of the disciples was, "Now, Lord, behold 
their threatenings," and went on preaching just the 
same. The truly sanctified soul ought to be fearless. 
According to the Scripture this is the true state of the 
man in the enjoyment of the blessing. 

Yet we are free moral agents still, and sensibilities 
are left, and Satan is not dead, and in many ways he 
tries to project into the heart that which has been 
burned out by the Holy Ghost. He points to lions 
in the way, to the ridicule of people, the opposition 
of persons high in authority, and all the numerous 
adverse influences that surround us. Oh, how he 
would like to get the sanctified soul looking at these 
things long enough to allow forgotten tremors to revisit 
the heart! How he loves to scare God's people, and 
keep them scared! To send them forth with a timid, 
brow-beaten, handshaking, cowering, ready-to-run 
kind of air! How he would love to introduce them 
in this pitiable condition to earth and hell as God's 
soldiers with which He is to conquer the world. 



J90 the sanctified ufe. 

The truly sanctified man will not be caught in this 
way. But in spite of Satanic bluster will go forward, 
and lo, under the whisper and light of Christ he will 
see that the lions are chained, that the ridicule can 
be borne, that the opposition will be buried, and that 
as for adverse influences they are far outnumbered by 
mightier heavenly forces, for "they that be with us 
are more than they that be with them. ' ' 

In the tenth chapter of Matthew the Saviour 
singles out some of the things that are most dreaded 
by men/and attaches a "Fear not" to each one of 
them. I^t the reader glance at them: 

Rejected in towns and homes; 

Delivered up to Councils; 

Scourged in synagogues; 

Forsaken by one's own family; 

Hated of all men; 

Called a devil; and 

The household become a foe. 

About them all Christ says, V Fear net." 

The disciples were faithful pupils, and under the 
Baptism of Fire and these strong reassuring words of 
Christ they did not fear. May we, with the like Bap- 
tism and the same Saviour by us, around us and in us, 
be also undismayed and go on from faith to faith and 
victory to victory, until at last w r e hear the "Well 
done " and enter into the joy of our Lord. 

We were much struck once with a speech that fell 



DOUBTS — FEARS — FR W\ 1 9 1 

from the lips of a world-famous colored female evan- 
gelist. She said that sanctified as she was, and had 
been for twenty-five years, Satan now and then tried 
to trip her from her steadfastness in Christ by bring- 
ing up memories of the awful past; but that she knew 
how to meet him. Then suddenly straightening her- 
self up she said: 

" If I was in a splendid chariot driving up one of 
the broad avenues of one of our greatest cities, and 
driven by the Archangel Gabriel, and the Devil stood 
on the sidewalk looking on and mocking, and should 
cry out, ' Look at Amanda Smith sitting up there. I 
knew her when she was a poor colored washerwoman, 
and I know all the mean things she once said and did ' 
— what would I do ? Would I get out of the carriage 
and take to side streets and alleys to hide because of 
what Satan said? No, sir! I would not even look 
around, but I would raise my head and say, f Drive 
on, Gabriel'." 

Who of us have not suffered in this way from 
recollections of a sinful past? If dwelt upon they 
terrorize the heart and paralyze the life. May we all 
imitate this woman of faith, and forgetting the past 
because God says He does, and remembering what 
Christ has done for us and in us, may we look straight 
ahead and cry out in answer to every voice that would 
stop us, " Drive on!" 



492 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

FRET. 

When we become sanctified the spirit of fret is 
taken out of us. Originating in Inbred Sin, when 
that is burned out by the Baptism of Fire we cease of 
course to worry. 

One of the loveliest features of sanctification is 
that when we have the genuine blessing we do not 
fret and have no inclination to do so. Outside cir- 
cumstances and conditions have not changed, but we 
are changed. The inward spiritual fever, the gun- 
powdery element, the easily aroused irritability and 
its concomitant spirit of worry are all gone. 

It is all very easy for a preacher to take the te*c, 
"Fret not thyself in anywise to do evil," and urge 
this upon regenerated people. As long as Inbred Sin 
is in the soul Christians will fret. And so the con- 
gregation which heard the sermon on not worrying, 
and praised it to the preacher's face, went home and 
worried. And the preacher who delivered the dis- 
course went home and fretted; his wife, children and 
servants being witnesses. 

Sanctification takes the spirit of fret out of the 
heart. But we must remember that the causes of irri- 
tation remain in the world, no matter how gloriously 
we were sanctified. *t is the work of Satan to get 
the attention of sanctified people once more on these 
objects of worry or causes for fret. The next effort 



DOUBTS— FU, ARS— FRET. 19 J 

is to secure a few remarks on the subject in the way 
of honest criticism and what he calls godly judgment. 
Then follow some more remarks, as they easily will 
after the levee of a God-established silence is broken. 
Before the man knows it Satan has crept in through 
the critical eye and judging mouth, and sowed the 
seeds of worry and fret again. 

We have all heard of "Sour Godliness." Of all 
forms of religious life, yes, of any kind of life, it is 
the most repelling. Such people have not lost the 
light, but the sweetness of the Gospel; the knowledge 
is left, but the grace of the I<ord Jesus is gone. 
Knowing God and the Saviour as the world knows 
them not, yet they have allowed Satan to resow Inbred 
Sin; the manna has corrupted, the honey of Canaan 
has been turned to vinegar and gall, the spirit of 
fret has returned, the sour-godly man is abroad. 

We reaffirm that sanctification takes worry out of 
the soul, but the causes for fret still remain. There 
are so many things that are not done as they should 
be. You see personal peculiarities about Holiness 
people, and objectionable mannerisms in Holiness 
preachers that are distressing. You observe a lack 
of education and culture among people who make 
claims to high religious experiences. Certain meth- 
ods adopted in revival work do not seem to be wise or 
best or Scriptural. You notice startling inconsisten- 
cies and even appearances of evil among those claim- 



194 THE SANCTIFIED U*B. 

ing to be sanctified. You hear of lapses, backslidings 
and dreadful falls. You mark the coldness and su- 
pineness of the laity, the timidity and man-fear of the 
preachers, and in a word a score of things that try 
the faith and patience and tempt you to give up at 
length in despair. 

The Ark is coming up, but it is drawn by cows on 
an ox-cart. The slowest of animals pulling, and the 
ungainliest of vehicles drawing the beautiful holy Ark 
of God. Surely this is all wrong. The Ark should 
have been placed on a golden chariot and drawn by 
milk-white horses! Surely something is wrong when 
rich, great, and prominent people have nothing to do 
with the beautiful blessing of Heart Purity and Per- 
fect Love. Why is it that so many poor, obscure, 
illiterate and uncultured people are harnessed to the 
great Holiness movement of to-day? What rough- 
looking messengers, what uncouth manners, what 
unimposing tabernacles, sheds and places of worship! 
Then how slow the movement toward Jerusalem and 
the Temple, where the Ark ought to be! It looks 
like it would never get there. Here and there an 
Obed-Edom opens his heart and home for the Ark, 
but most of the time it is on the road, a spectacle and 
gazing-stock to the Philistines. Then the oxen 
stumble, and David gets discouraged, and Michal is 
laughing at the window — behold, everybody seems to 
be against us. 



DOUBTS — FEARS — FRET. 1 95 

Now what a time to fret! What an opportunity 
for calling of conventions of protest, and filling the 
papers with letters of bitter arraignment of men and 
the times, with side dishes of remarks acidulated and 
made hot with ecclesiastical vinegar and pepper. 

What a time for discouragement, and toning down 
[the testimony, and becoming politic, and dropping 
certain objectionable Bible terms, and as you foresee 
squally times ahead, making friends with those whom 
you would have receive you into their habitations. 
Now is the opportunity to write long epistles to re- 
ligious journals bemoaning the Holiness movement, 
and rapping and slapping at the people who believe in 
it. Verily, if a man will write such a letter, or put 
forth a pamphlet after this order, all the sins which 
he has sinned in formerly believing in and professing 
the experience shall be forgiven him — in this world. 

There is no end to causes for fret as we glance over 
the work and field. Shall we do it ? Or shall we hear 
God and follow the blessed command, "Fret not thy- 
self in any wise to do evil "? It is bound to result in 
evil if we do. As sanctification took out the worry- 
ing spirit, let it in God's name stay out. 

And let this thought be for our comfort, that God 
is in the Holiness movement, and He is well able to 
take care of it. He preserved the truth and the 
Church centuries before we were born, and He will 
do so centuries after we have gone to dust. He bur- 



196 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

led the generation that tried to keep His people out 
of Canaan, and He will do so again to-day. He 
swept aside Herod, and Pilate, and Julian the Apos- 
tate, and Nero, and all of His people's enemies, in 
spite of their bluster, cruelty, pomp and power, and 
they are to-day under the ground waiting for the 
Judgment Day. In like manner He will overthrow 
sooner or later every denier and resister of His holy 
truth, and every oppressor and persecuter of His holy 
people, and either smitten like Uzzah on earth for 
touching the Ark, or judged at the last day for op- 
pressing the Lord's servants, they will surely have 
their reward. A great unrelenting justice will settle 
that matter, in spite of protesting cries of ' * Lord, 
Lord, in thy name we did many wonderful works." 
A cry swept away forever by words as solemn as 
doom, " Inasmuch as ye did it to them, ye did it to 
me," and again, " I know ye not." 

There is no need to fret. God is alive and work- 
ing. And the Ark is coming up the road in spite of 
surrounding ignorant Philistines, in spite of the feeble 
social and ecclesiastical agencies that God is using to 
bring it up, and in spite of the distance still between 
us and Jerusalem. The Ark will finally get there. 
David and Jerusalem will come out to meet it, and 
with great rejoicings the long-banished Ark, the long- 
lost doctrine of Holiness by Faith will be restored to 
its place in the Temple and churches of God. 



< DOUBTS — FEARS — FRET. I97 

When it is done, no flesh will be able to glory. It 
was not man that did it. Man could not do it. God 
did it in spite of man, in spite of the authority and 
power of Church and State. God did not do it with the 
great, rich, prominent, eloquent and elegant; if He 
had, the world would have believed that the work was 
accomplished by human greatness, wealth, position, 
eloquence and culture, and God would have lost the 
glory. Oh, the wisdom of God and the power of 
God; He brought the Ark up to Jerusalem, not on a 
beautiful vehicle drawn by handsome animals with 
tossing manes and glittering harness, but on an ox- 
cart drawn by lowing cows. * ' For ye see your call- 
ing, brethren, how that not many wise men after the 
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: 
but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world 
to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things which are 
mighty, and base things of the world, and things 
which are despised hath God chosen, yea and things 
which are not, to bring to naught things that are; 
that no flesh should glory in his presence." 

Mr. Wesley said he would as soon expect to swear 
as to fret. And why not ? For fretting is the very 
essence of unbelief, and the Bible tells us that unbe- 
lief will damn us. 

We have a preacher friend in the North. One day 
he was in a carriage being driven rapidly to the depot 



198 THE SANCTIFIED LIFB. 

to catch a train. He had but a few minutes to reach 
the station and purchase the ticket before the express 
would be due. It was very important that he should 
leave on that particular train. Just as he had come in 
a short distance of the depot, a great lumbering freight 
train pulled in before him, the street gates were 
shut down and he had to wait for one of the longest 
trains he ever saw go bumping by in a snail-gait way. 
What a time for fret, what a golden opportunity for 
worry, fuming and general inward perspiration. He 
could have held his watch in his hand, and said : 
* * Will the train never end ? I will never get to the 
depot in time," and boiled over generally. This is 
what many would have done, and gained nothing in 
the world by such fretting except the evil the Bible 
speaks of. 

Our friend was a sanctified man. So when the 
long train blocked his way, he leaned back quietly and 
as one box thumped by he said, " Glory. 1 ' A second 
car passed and he cried " Hallelujah/ ' a third was 
honored with the words " Bless the IyOrd, M and toward 
the fourth box was propelled the glad and exultant 
old word of " Glory " again. But by the time he had 
uttered these expressions of praise the fourth time, he 
was shouting happy, and the carriage could hardly 
contain him. He got such a blessing that he did not 
care whether he was left or not. He obtained one of 
the greatest blessings of his life by saying - 1 Hallelu- 



DOUBTS — FEARS — FRET. 1 99 

jah" over an obstructing train and crying out 
"Glory" over every box-car that crossed the track 
before him. In a word, he refused to fret. A charm- 
ing sequel to the incident was that God delayed the 
express train for his servant ten minutes, so that our 
brother had time to purchase his ticket and get off 
without hurry. To sum up, by obeying God he not 
only got off on the train he desired, but secured also 
a wonderfully rich blessing in addition, with which to 
travel and rejoice all the evening. 

May we do likewise ? May we not count the great 
obstructions that we see piling up to stop our way, 
but praise God over those that bump and clatter by us. 
We will have nothing to do with the language of fret 
that belongs to the carnal mind, but speak in the 
heavenly vernacular of adoration and praise* Instead 
of wailing over mistakes and failures we will shout 
over our deliverances. Instead of nursing our sorrows 
and wrongs we will sing praises to God, if we have to 
do it at midnight with feet in stocks and backs riven by 
the scourge. In a word, we will take Habakkuk, out 
of whom all the spirit of fret seems to have gone, as an 
example, when he says: " Although the fig tree shall 
not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the 
labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield 
no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and 
there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet will I rejoice in 
the I^ord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." 



CHAPTER XV. 

COMB-OUT-ISM AND PUT-OUT-ISM. 

IN view of the suspicion, as well as unfriendliness, 

with which the blessing of entire sanctification and 
its possessors and professors are regarded in many 
quarters to-day, the question has been naturally raised, 
and that repeatedly, What shall we do ? 

Preachers are discounted who enjoy, preach and 
press this great blessing. Laymen who have it soon 
find they are regarded with suspicion and uneasiness, 
are removed from official positions, and in other cases 
even put out of the church. As for meetings held in 
church, hall, tent or brush arbor, they are looked 
upon with great disfavor by many in the church, are 
felt to be disloyal and hurtful to denominational inter- 
ests, and are avoided, discountenanced, ridiculed and 
opposed, as the case may be 

The profession of the experience in class-meeting, 
preachers* meeting and conference love feast, is re- 
ceived with chilling silence and drooping heads. 

The subscribing to a religious paper published dis- 
tinctively on this line is felt to be wrong, and is spoken 
against and legislated against in conferences. 

A holiness literature is felt to be un needed, and 



COME-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. 201 

holiness gatherings of all kinds to be deprecated and 
condemned. 

This <tfate of things and much more of the same 
sort exists and so extorts the question, What under the 
circumstances shall be done? 

Numbers of questions and letters have been ad- 
dressed to the author asking advice for individuals and 
for whole communities as well. The statement made 
by them was that the spirit of the century was against 
religious intolerance, that freedom of conscience was 
guaranteed by the constitution of this country, that 
the doctrine they contended for was imbedded in the 
writings and teachings of their church, and yet for 
defending it they were treated as schismatics. That 
if one year they had a pastor who believed in it, the 
next year another preacher was sent who opposed the 
doctrine, ridiculed the experience, and either adroitly 
or forcibly undid the work of years, done by holiness 
people on full salvation lines. 

The question propounded was what should they do 
tinder the circumstances. Should they remain to be 
marked, tabooed, ostracized, and hear assailed from 
the pulpit Sabbath after Sabbath the experience 
which they enjoyed and the doctrine they knew to be 
divine? Or should they go to other denominations 
that are more friendly and tolerant ? Or should they 
organize themselves into independent congregations? 

After a great holiness revival, when fifty, one hun- 



202 THE SANCTIFIED U*E. 

dred or two hundred souls have swept into the blessing 
of Perfect Love the question arises again with increas- 
ing gravity. The thought of the people being left in 
the midst of a doubting and jeering community with- 
out a ministerial head and shepherd to feed and keep 
them together, and the additional fact of their peculiar 
danger of falling into the hands of false teachers who 
would switch them off into error and fanaticism ; these 
facts are bound to spring the question, What shall be 
done under such a state of things ? 

And yet in the face of all this, when the question 
has been asked the writer, his pen has been used and 
his voice lifted against what is known as 

come-out-ism. 

Let it be understood at once that by cotne-out-ism 
we do not mean a change of church relationship. 
There are many good reasons that can arise in the 
lives of Christians to warrant and necessitate a trans- 
fer of membership from one denomination to the other. 
This has ever been practiced among the churches and 
has never that we heard of been called cotne-out-ism. 
There are many preachers in the Methodist Church 
who came there from other denominations. Some of 
them now occupy high positions, and no one regards 
them and calls them come-out-ers. 

The come-out-ism that we refer to is a kind of 
ecclesiastical lawlessness, a spirit that will not brook 



COMK-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. 203 

control, despises authority, and is generally refractory. 
Such people quote the Scripture, M Come out of her, 
my people," as referring to religious denominations, 
and so sever all church relations, and rail upon what 
they call "Sects" and live ecclesiastically apart from 
their brethren. 

Against this withdrawal and separation from the 
the church we have always lifted our voice. We 
grant that in many congregations we find spiritual 
deadness, formality and worldliness; we grieve over the 
amusement features, questionable financial methods and 
the presence of the cooking-stove and dining-room in 
the Church of God. We listen to a character of sing- 
ing in some churches that we believe to be offensive to 
God. We hear oftentimes sermons that are rhetorical, 
literary and entertaining, but without spiritual food, 
and with no unction in them. And yet with all these 
things before us we have counseled the people to remain 
in the church, and for the following reasons : 

First, if we have the wonderful experience we say 
we have, it is evidently intended of God as a light of 
the world and salt of the earth blessing for those 
who have it not. 

If the church has lost it or never possessed the 
grace, we who have received so many benefits from 
the people of God, in simple gratitude alone owe it to 
them to stay with them and so teach and live the 
blessing that they also will obtain it. 



204 ?HS SANCTIFIED UFB. 

The very figures of " light*' and "salt" should 
reveal our duty. Salt is not to be removed to itself, 
but put on the meat it is to preserve. Light is sent 
to scatter darkness, not to draw off in a bunch to itself 
and leave it alone. 

If our church friends do not see the second work of 
grace at once, we must remember that we also heard of 
it for years before we felt stirred up to seek and 
possess it. Our duty evidently is to stay by the ship 
in hopes that God will give us all the company who 
sail with us. 

Second, to n come out," is finally to drift into some 
kind of organization, and the objection to that is seen 
in the following grave facts : 

One is that we have enough of religious denomi- 
nations already 

Again, by coming out from the churches in which 
we were raised, we separate ourselves from the very 
body of people we want to teach and ought to bless. 
This movement is certain to raise an insurmountable 
wall in that direction. We have seen it in quite a num- 
ber of places. Nor is this all, but we have seen this 
lofty and unscalable wall presented to Holiness workers 
and preachers who never dreamed of leaving the church. 
The doctrine was made to suffer from the mistakes of 
good people who acted hastily and unwisely. In such 
communities great bodies of excellent people will not 
hear the doctrine of sanctification preached, no 



COME- OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT- ISM. 205 

matter who fills the pulpit, because their impression 
is that it rends and destroys instead of filling with the 
Holy Ghost and building up every interest of Zion. 

Still again, the very things that have been deplored 
and inveighed against in the various churches will in 
due course of time be seen reproduced in any ecclesi- 
astical organization. It may start out well, but certain 
regrettable things are sure in time to come in and break 
forth. 

Some twelve or fifteen years ago a large body of 
Christians formed a Holiness Church in which there 
must be fully two hundred congregations. To-day 
they are rent over a question of church polity, the two 
wings standing one for Elder Supremacy and the other 
for Extreme Congregationalism. The opposite party 
dubbing the other side by one of the titles above. 

We know of two preachers who said they were so 
domineered over and oppressed by church authorities 
that they drew out and left the fold. To-day they 
have a " folio wing* ' and are ecclesiastical despots. I 
never saw a bishop or presiding elder more autocratic 
than are these same men. 

In other quarters of our country there are leading 
laymen in the holiness movement who are on the high 
road to be popes. Yet they were once the humblest 
and most sweet-spirited of men. 

With equal pain we have discovered in more than 
one holiness camp ground committee the same partial- 



206 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

ities, prejudices, man-fear, and secret way of doing 
things, that they as individuals had formerly con- 
demned in Boards of Stewards. 

These are sporadic cases, it is true, but are hints to 
us of what we are to expect if the holiness people 
"come out M and organize. God forbid that they 
should do so. 

We are convinced that no greater calamity could 
befall the holiness movement than for it to separate 
from the church, and form into a distinct ecclesiastical 
organization. In a few years we would see the same 
things existing that we deplore to-day in certain 
religious quarters. 

The third reason against ' ' coming out ■ ' is that a 
witnessing of suffering on our parts to the truth of 
sanctification will be more convincing and effective in 
bringing people to the knowledge of the truth and into 
the experience itself than any other course. 

The excuse given for Come-out-ism is that our 
traveling preachers are located ; the licenses of local 
preachers are taken away, while our members are 
ridiculed and continually belabored from the pulpit in 
regard to the blessing they enjoy and which they know 
to be as true as heaven. 

Ought we to remain, they ask, in such surround- 
ings? and Sunday after Sunday, instead of hearing 
the gospel, be treated to this hour's tirade and abuse ? 

Our reply is that our sufferings are not worthy to 



COM^-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. 2ty 

be compared with what the disciples and early Chris- 
tians went through for the gospel's sake. Nor does it 
measure up to the mob violence inflicted upon early 
Methodists. Nor does it equal the harsh treatment 
given by the world to the Salvation Army before it 
became popular. Neither have we been martyred like 
Hhe Apostles ; nor treated like Mr. Wesley, who was 
stoned times without number ; nor burned at the stake 
like the Reformers ; nor butchered in cold blood for our 
faith like the Armenians. 

We have been sent to broken-down appointments, 
located, and licenses taken away. We have been sat 
down on at Conference, attacked in our church papers, 
and ridiculed and called cranks and fanatics. We have 
been treated to any amount of "cold shoulder " and 
our stock value has gone down amazingly in our church 
councils. We have been laughed at publicly and 
privately, and been the butt and target of many tongues 
and pens — but we have not yet seen the prison or the 
stake, and God has said, " Touch not his life." 

The question to my mind is, Can we not stand 
abuse? Can we not be laughed at, ridiculed and 
treated unjustly without straightway wanting to leave 
the church and withdraw support from the preachers ! 
Can we not endure opposition? Will not the blessing 
of sanctification keep us sweet? Is not thy God, O 
Daniel, able to deliver thee from the lions? 

God is to-day giving us the opportunity to prove 



208 THE SANCTIFIED XJK& 

the blessing of sanctification to the church and world. 
The way He adopts for the illustration and vindication 
of the doctrine is by the course of ridicule, opposition 
and even persecution. ' l If when ye do well'and suffer 
for it, ye take it patiently: this is acceptable with God. ■ ■ 
If when detracted, denounced and opposed we keep 
sweet, uncomplaining, loving and full of holy joy, we 
will convince gainsayers and doubters and bring about 
a sweeping holiness revival. It will take time, but we 
will win at last. It is the only way in which we can 
win the victory we crave to see. 

If, on the other hand, we can not brook contra- 
diction, but fly into controversies and disputes ; if we 
will not wait for God to lock the lion's jaws or unlock 
the prison doors, and thus deliver us from our diffi- 
culties, but take things into our own hands and try to 
lock the lion's jaw ourself, and beat down the walls of 
our confinement with our own fists and weapons, then 
will the lion eat us up, or the prison wall fall on us. 

If we, instead of keeping patient and waiting God's 
time, go to inveighing against laws and authorities, and 
abusing the church which baptized us, married us f 
buried our dead, taught us in our childhood and youth 
all we know of God, bore with us a thousand times ; 
if we do this, who will believe we have perfect love, 
and who will want what we say we have? 

If sanctification does not keep us patient, kind, 
long-suffering and forgiving, then in what respect does 



COMB-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. 209 

It differ from the ordinary type of religious living we 
see around us? 

The soul as we have studied it need never be in- 
jured by hardship and oppression. Like violets, the 
spirit breathes out its sweetest perfume when down- 
trodden. Christ, the Bible tells us, was made perfect 
through suffering, and we read that if we suffer with 
Him we shall also reign with Him. 

Let us stand firm and true, but be gentle and lov- 
ing. Let us witness a good confession before the 
Pilates of this world. Let us rejoice like Peter when 
we are scourged, and go on preaching, testifying and 
living the experience. Let us pray for our stoners as 
did Stephen. Let us say with Paul no matter how 
we are treated that our prayer and desire for Israel is 
that it might be saved. Let us be "in the Spirit M 
even on Patmos, where we have been exiled to poor 
appointments for the truth, and write messages of 
thrilling power to the churches that will burn when 
we have gone to ashes. In a word, let us look 
up that overlooked passage in the fifth chapter of 
Matthew where the Saviour tells us to " love our ene- 
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for those which despitefully use 
and persecute you." 

If anything in the world will convince our brethren 
that we have the second blessing, one ahead of them, 
it will be such a spirit and such a life. 



2IO THK SANCTIFIED I<IF3. 

Do not let us leave the church, but continue to 
come to the services, contribute to the collections, and 
always keep sweet. We should also have a regular 
holiness meeting at least once a week on some night 
that will not conflict with the regular church appoint- 
ments. So, if we will do these things, if we will 
steadily follow this sweet, gentle and yet firm way 
we will move and win the people, disarm prejudice, 
remove resentment, and as David was asked to return 
to Jerusalem by the very people who drove him out, 
so shall we finally prevail and return to Zion with 
songs and everlasting joj\ 

PUT-OUT-ISM. 

This we regard as very different from Come-out- 
ism. It is a treatment that has been visited upon the 
best people in the past ages, that has been repeated in 
these days, and will continue to be exercised, we fear, 
for years to come. 

Divisions and parties seem to be as natural in State 
and Church as hemispheres are on this globe. Noth- 
ing makes a plainer line of distinction or digs a deeper 
channel of division than a marked grade in the relig- 
ious life. Some have ever stood up for form, ceremony 
and church machinery and government, while others 
filled with the Spirit care little for those things save 
as God would have them regarded and duty and 
common sense see their actual fitness and need. 



COME-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. 211 

The Pharisees were great on the observances of the 
Law ; the Sadducees were mighty in doctrinal discus- 
sion, and the Essenes went to the deserts and caves in 
lives of spiritual contemplation. The Catholic prelates 
in their glittering vestments, and Martin Luther 
pleading before them for the truth of justification by 
faith was a spectacle along the line we speak of. The 
clergy of the seventeenth century, engaged in the work 
professionally with relaxation of wine parties and fox 
hunts, while John Wesley and his followers preaching 
to the neglected masses and visiting the sick and pris- 
oners and helping the poor, is another contrast. 

The big religious conventions of to-day with 
famous speakers out-doing one another in the name of 
the Lord, and the holiness camp-meetings with altars 
crowded with weeping penitents and the fire falling 
from heaven, is another scene for the thoughtful. 
Also the stirring, fussy, unspiritual Ladies' Aid So- 
ciety is in marked contrast to, and holds itself aloof 
from the class meeting room where testimonies ring 
clear, tears drip, and shouts abound. 

We have men filling high positions in the church 
to-day who never save souls. Editors, college presi- 
dents, dignitaries and officials of various kinds; and 
yet preaching, writing, and moving around, they do 
not know what it is to see a conversion. On the other 
hand, we see another class of ministers, humble, ob- 
scure, poorly paid, many of them unlearned, but 



212 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

deeply religious and full of power, saving the souls of 
men wherever they go. Another curious fact is that 
the first mentioned class have the ruling influence in 
the church and manage everything, while the second 
class are ruled, and listen deferentially once or twice 
a year to big addresses and sermons from the first 
class. It is certainly a strange spectacle both to earth 
and heaven, to see a body of men who know how to 
save souls listening for an hour to instructions as to 
how to do it, when the instructor himself does not 
know how and never knew how. 

These foregoing hints are given that the reader 
might see how divisions arise in the Church of God 
not only on questions of polity, but along the line of 
character and religious experience. 

As a rule, the less spiritual part of the membership 
of the church is in the majority, and when this class 
handles the reins of power, hasty and oppressive meas- 
ures are certain to come. 

Naturally, the deeper spiritual experience and 
testimony of the minority will grieve and offend the 
majority, and so only too likely ridicule, criticism, 
opposition, and finally expulsion will be the fate of 
the smaller number. 

This prepares one for Put-out-ism while still 
not believing in Come-out-ism. The last is a mis- 
take, and is certain to eud unhappily ; the first is all 
right so far as the victim is concerned, who is sure to 



COME-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM, 2 1 3 

receive happiness and blessedness on earth and reward 
in heaven. 

It is a sorrowful spectacle, however, to see people 
ridiculed, oppressed and sometimes ejected from the 
church on account of possessing a heart- warming, soul- 
overflowing religious experience. The Bible tells us 
about putting away the member who committed sin, 
but where will we find a Scripture that can cover and 
defend the course of thrusting people out of the ministry 
and church because they have received the Baptism of 
the Holy Ghost and are sanctified ? 

In some places where this has been done the reply 
is that it was not on account of the man's belief in 
a doctrine or profession of experience that he was 
turned out, but for general crankiness, insubordination 
and other faults. Laymen are said to refuse to bow to 
authority, and preachers are reported at Conference as 
unacceptable, and that work can not be found for 
them. By this method men filled with the Spirit of 
God and who have revivals every year have been cast 
out. Concerning the excuse given we only say that 
11 The Great Day M will prove whether the charge was 
true or not. All hidden things shall be revealed in 
that hour. 

In other places, and among denominations other 
than the Methodist, no scruple is felt nor time lost in 
putting one out of the church because of the doctrine 
of sanctification. Nineteen were expelled from one 



214 ?H3 SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

congregation. The only charge against them was that 
they believed in sanctification and said they enjoyed 
the experience. 

In a Southern city we heard a man give the follow- 
ing remarkable testimony. He was known by the com- 
munity and stood well. He was not a Methodist, but 
belonged to one of the largest Evangelical churches in 
the land. He said : " I have been turned out of my 
church. For twenty years I was a drinking member 
of that church, and have been seen repeatedly carrying 
a jug of whisky home in my buggy. I got drunk 
many times, and they never turned me out. But a 
year ago I was reclaimed, and soon after heard of the 
doctrine of sanctification. I sought it with all my 
heart and found it. And now with my soul full of 
religion my church has tried and expelled me. They 
could keep a drunkard on the roll, but could not stand 
a sanctified man." 

There was not the slightest accent of bitterness in 
the man's voice, while his upturned face fairly shone 
with the light and love of God. A great thoughtfulness 
settled down on the audience as the fact came out for 
the hundredth time that card-players, theatre-goers, 
Sabbath breakers and even whisky drinkers can be 
allowed to remain in the church, while people claim- 
ing to be sanctified and living acceptably before God 
in thought, word and deed are thrust out of the 
synagogue. 



COMB-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. 215 

To this same misunderstood and wronged class we 
say : " Be patient, for the coming of the I<ord draweth 
nigh." Do not sour, no matter what may be your 
treatment. Be true to God, go to church, and support 
its institutions. Keep sweet, love everybody, say that 
you are sanctified and prove it by your life 

As an additional thought of good cheer we call 
attention to the fact that the line of men and women 
thrust out of social and ecclesiastical circles for living 
close to God makes a very lengthy and glorious chain, 
a true Apostolical Succession. 

Heading the procession is the Saviour Himself who 
was taken by the official members of the synagogue at 
Nazareth and not only thrust out, but led to the 
brow of the hill on which the city was built that He 
might be cast down and destroyed. 

Paul was so frequently dragged from the Temple 
and synagogues and preaching places that it was with 
eminent fitness he said, " I die daily." 

The disciples were arrested in the Temple, beaten 
by order of the Sanhedrim, thrust into prison, com- 
manded to preach no more, and as the apostle said, 
were "counted as the filth and offscouring of the 
world." 

Luther was a Put-out-er. So were Bunyan and 
Fox, and a great many others whom we might name 
and who, unrecognized and unappreciated in their life- 
time, are now seen by the world to have been me9- 



2X6 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

sengers of God, charged with a message, and having a 
dispensation of the Gospel committed unto them. 

John Wesley was a Put-out-er, but not a Come- 
out-er. He regarded the thought of leaving his 
communion with pain and horror. And yet the doors 
of the church he loved so well were shut one after 
another against him all over the country. A recurring 
expression in his Journal is, "I was asked no more to 
preach in church." One sermon perfectly sat- 
isfied or dissatisfied the curate or rector. Summoned 
before the Bishops, forbidden repeatedly by clergymen 
to hold meetings in their parishes, opposed by the 
magistrates and treated with violence by the mob, so 
a great portion of the life of this apostolic man was 
spent. Shut out from the church in which his father 
had served, and preaching in front of it on that fa- 
ther's tombstone to an audience of ten thousand people, 
the whole scene would make a splendid coat-of-arms 
for the great army of Put-out-ers who have been 
similarly treated for many centuries, and will continue 
to be so served until the coming of the Millennium. 

Time would fail to tell of the spiritual Samsons, 
Gideons and Jepthaes, who for their faith and works' 
sake have been made to go forth and wander about, 
being destitute, despised and afflicted — but of whom it 
will be seen at the Last Day that the world was not 
worthy. 

Many instances crowd on the mind, but we select 



COME-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. 217 

only a single case from the many. He was one of the 
most faithful and fearless of Methodist ministers. At 
home and in the social circle he was as gentle as a 
woman. In the pulpit the fire would fall upon him 
and he would speak as one inspired. Going to his cir- 
cuit, his first two sermons directed upon a backslidden 
church were on the subjects of Intemperance and 
Sabbath-breaking, while the third was upon Holiness. 
They heard him until the last topic was reached, when 
his leading members came together, packed his furni- 
ture and baggage in with him in a wagon, had him 
driven thirty miles, and dumped in the boundaries of 
another circuit in an adjoining county. The steward 
who drove the wagon groaned all the way of that thirty 
miles drive, while the preacher who was thus being * \ put 
out " had a constant stream of praise and hallelujahs 
arising in his heart and flowing from his lips every foot 
of the remarkable journey. What a strange duet it 
was that went up from the wagon that day. One 
man groaning, the other praising God. They never 
changed parts, but each one held to his own without 
cessation or letting down of any kind. 

One more point, and we conclude the chapter. 
When the Pharisees and Rulers cast the man whom 
Christ had healed out of the synagogue, we doubt not 
that his heart was grieved and his mind troubled. It 
is no small thing to a religious nature to be Jewishly 
cast out, Roman Catholically excommunicated, and 



2l8 THE SANCTIFIED WFB. 

Protestantly put out of the church in various ways. 
In this instance the man's main fault was that he had 
been thoroughly healed, and said that Jesus did it. 
He would not be confused by the cross- questioning, 
nor intimidated by the anger of the Jews ; he firmly 
held his ground and said: "He hath opened mine 
eyes." Their answer was : " Dost thou teach us? M 
* ' and they cast him out " ! 

Now comes the blessed word of cheer. It is in the 
next verse. "Jesus heard that they had cast him out ; 
and when He had found him! " 

Let every man or woman who has suffered and is 
still suffering for Christ and the Gospel's sake, be of 
good cheer. If Jesus has made you whole, you 
owe it to Him to declare it. If such a testimony 
brings opposition and hardship to you in different 
ways ; if men should thrust you out of church posi* 
tion and membership, there is no need for gloom or 
despair. Jesus sees what is going on. He knows 
perfectly well who is suffering for Him. He will not 
forget or overlook you. He who visited the three 
Hebrew children in the Furnace of Fire will come to 
you. He who hunted up the man cast out of the 
synagogue and interviewed him will come after you, 
find you, and talk with you. What a visit of glory 
that was in the Babylonian Furnace, and what an inter- 
view of rapture that was the excommunicated man had 
with the Son of God. In like manner there will be 



COME-OUT-ISM — PUT-OUT-ISM. S 1 9 

visits and interviews of such heavenly sweetness 
granted those who suffer for righteousness' sake in 
this world, that they will not feel the fire of per- 
secution, and instead of regarding themselves as " cast 
out" or "put out," there will be an unutterably 
blissful sensation of having been "taken in" to a 
tenderer, holier communion with Christ and into a rest, 
joy and glory that seem to belong to the third and 
seventh heaven. 

The Saviour has given the time and eternity view 
of such a piece of moral history. In this world He 
says, " Rejoice and be exceeding glad." In the world 
to come, " Great is your reward," 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SECRET SOCIETIES. 

1 1 7E have been asked a number of times whether it 
is proper, right, and even possible for a sancti- 
fied man to belong to the various fraternities and 
secret societies that now fill our land and, we might 
say, empty our homes. 

Our answer in the fear of God has been and is, 
that we believe the Spirit of Christ, if allowed, will 
lead us out of all such associations. 

As for ourselves, when the light came on the sub- 
ject we gave up our fraternity connection with a loss 
of membership fees of nearly three hundred dollars. 
We have never regretted the step or the loss. 

In addition, we call attention to certain facts con- 
nected with these orders the consideration of which 
we can not but feel will convince the child of God that 
he should have nothing to do with them. The follow- 
ing argument is a part of a pamphlet we wrote on the 
subject several years ago : 

They strike at the happiness of the home. 

This is seen in the frequent and protracted absence 
from home they necessarily entail. It is a devoted 
connection which the fraternity brings about. Night 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 221 

after night the father and husband is away from the 
family circle, and this continues for years. It is in 
these absences of the father and husband from the 
family group, where they are so much needed, that 
we see the happiness and well-being of the home 
assailed. 

We believe that we speak the sentiment of count- 
less thousands of wives to-day when we say that they 
would far rather have the company of their husbands 
at home than the insurance policy connected with the 
fraternity at the end of their lives, if they could 
choose between. Ask them now, ask them anywhere, 
which will you have, the love and presence of your 
husband or the policy of $2,000 or $3,000? and the 
answer would roll like a tidal wave from every true- 
hearted woman : Give me my husband ! Let me have 
his love and old-time devotion, and let the money go. 
For a woman to feel otherwise would be to transform 
her into a Judas. 

Once there visited my study a lady of very prepos- 
sessing appearance. She told me how her life had 
been desolated. We shall never forget the sadness of 
her countenance. She said her husband was absent 
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights 
until 12 and 1 o'clock. That one night she, with a 
burst of grief, said to him : " My husband, suppose I 
would stay from you this late every night ; how long 
would you live with me?" And he folded his arms, 



222 THK SANCTIFIED U*B. 

looked into her face a second, and replied : " Just 
about five minutes, madam!" And yet, what he 
would not endure he expected a woman to stand. The 
idea utterly escapes some men that there is any suffer- 
ing upon the female side. 

We received a letter from a prominent lady in 
Chicago that if printed here would make the heart 
ache. She attributed a broken heart and a ruined 
home to the influence of secret fraternities upon her 
husband. She said she was willing to go before 
any tribunal in the land, and could substantiate all 
she said. 

The secret fraternity is rapidly becoming a club, 
and a place and time of convivial gathering. 

No matter what the object was for which they 
were started, they are evidently going in this direction. 
You all know what a club is. We never heard of a 
man getting converted in a club in our life. We never 
heard of a man called of God to preach in a club in 
our life. A lady told us in New Orleans — and we 
will never forget her look as she said : " We women 
have been ' clubbed ' to death." Under that witticism 
we read the wail of a woman's broken heart. Is it 
so that fraternities and societies are drifting in the 
direction of the club ? A large collection of letters at 
home which we received would thoroughly answer this 
question. 

Of course you have heard of such a thing as banquets 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 223 

in connection with these fraternities and societies? 
Doubtless you know what happens at a banquet? In 
many of the fraternities there is, as far as we can hear, 
intoxicating liquors flowing freely. When it flows 
freely you know what happens. An article in a city 
journal said these fraternities were to build up human- 
ity. Sometimes we have seen men coming from these 
banquets at a late hour, and somehow we did not feel 
like we were looking upon built up humanity. 

These fraternities rob Christ of His glory. 

We all know that benevolence, or Christian char- 
ity, as we see it in its manifold and beautiful forms, is 
the result of the presence and influence of Christ in 
the heart and in the world. We fail to see such things 
in the heathen world. Charity belongs to Christian- 
ity. It is the work of Christ. Now, when a man 
gives, and fails to acknowledge Christ in the gift, he 
has robbed the Son of God of his peculiar glory. 

Let me illustrate : In a certain distant city there 
exists a newspaper that is anti- Christ, anti-religion, 
anti-everything that is holy. Whenever a case of 
public suffering comes up this paper opens its columns 
for contributions, and the gifts flow in. Two-thirds of 
the donors are Christian men and women inspired by 
the love of Christ ; but mark you, a Christless news- 
paper gets the glory, and not the Saviour. 

So you can take the benevolences of all these secret 
fraternities, and Christ is not acknowledged or thought 



224 TH ^ SANCTIFIED UFK. 

of. One-half of the members belong to the church 
and give because of Christ being in their hearts and 
lives, but Christ does not get the glory ; instead, a 
fraternity that may be worldly in its name and spirit, 
receives the honor and credit. All Christian giving 
when not done in the name of Jesus Christ is robbing 
the Son of God of His glory. 

The fraternity hurts us in the matter of church 
attendance. 

According to our observation the more faithful a 
man is to his lodge or fraternity the less devoted is he 
to his church. The claims of a secret society are only 
too apt to monopolize his time and energies to the 
slighting, and often the neglect, of the house of God. 
We remember a time when we had great difficulty in 
getting some of our members to attend an important 
church meeting. One could not come on Monday 
night on account of his lodge; a second could not 
appear Tuesday evening because of his fraternity meet- 
ing at that hour, and so on through the week. Each 
one heard a higher call than that of the church, and 
that higher call was his lodge. 

What would you call this ? Is this not rivalry to 
the church? Is not God grieved at such a spectacle? 
At one of the churches we once served there was a 
steward who attended one prayer-meeting in the 
month ; the other three Wednesday evenings he was 
at the meetings of the different fraternities to 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 225 

which he belonged. How did God regard that, do 
you suppose ? The Bible says he is a jealous God. Is 
there not much in such a life as this to awaken the 
Divine jealousy and displeasure ? By and by this 
kind of life affects even the Sabbath attendance. The 
man hardens and becomes careless and indifferent, 
and then we miss him Sabbath nights, and finally 
altogether. The influence of the associations in the 
effect of church depreciation becomes unmistakably 
manifested. When God looks down and sees a church 
member, who is a fraternity man, failing to come to 
prayer-meeting and the Sunday night service, and yet 
never failing to be present at the meeting of his 
lodge, then He is bound to be grieved. 

The fraternity hurts the church financially. 

If you knew the whole of the matter you would be 
amazed. We know a church member who gives $30 a 
year to his fraternity, and nothing to his church. 
We know another who gives $120 annually to his socie- 
ties, and one- fourth of this sum to his church. Still 
another has given lately over $500 to his fraternities 
and not one-tenth of that sum to his church. 

In a large Western city of our country a certain 
fraternity met, paraded, banqueted and celebrated for 
three days. In that length of time more money was 
thus spent in eating, drinking, marching and display- 
ing regalia finery than all the churches of that large 
city had given for the support and spread of the 



226 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

Gospel for the previous twenty years. And yet over 
half of the members of that fraternity were church 
members. 

Suppose that, instead of all this Christian money 
being expended for feathers, brass bands and banquet- 
ing, it had found its way in spiritual channels in 
all the noble enterprises of the church, and had gone 
toward the erection of colleges, founding of asylums 
and homes for the unfortunate and for the establish- 
ment of missions in heathen lands, how much better 
it would have been, and what a thrill of relief would 
have gone through the land. 

Then there is the feature of the chaplaincy. 

We regard this point as one of great gravity. We 
know that there are many excellent men in this office, 
and that many fraternities try to get proper men to fill 
the place. But it is as well known that this often 
fails, and that men who should never thus officiate are 
in the office. 

How often have we seen at funerals a minister of 
the Gospel, whom God had called and anointed for 
the sacred work of the ministry, set aside as a piece of 
useless lumber, while a fraternity monopolized the 
solemn hour, and a man from the trades came for- 
ward, and although not called of God to such a work, 
and oftentimes not even a religious man, would con- 
duct the religious service over the dead. Who of 
us can believe that this is right in the sight of God? 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 227 

A gentleman, who is prominent 111 the fraternities, 
told me that he has frequently seen one of these lay- 
men chaplains administering the oath of the order, 
and while doing so was partially intoxicated. Still 
another told me that during a visit to a large city in 
Kentucky he attended a meeting at a certain fraternity 
one night and witnessed the installation of one of the 
members into the office of chaplain ; and that as the 
Bible was handed him with the customary remarks, 
quite a titter ran around the room. On asking the 
cause of the amusement he was told that the man was 
guilty of a great social sin. 

The effect of a sacred office thus misused and 
abused, and thus wrongly occupied is to bring the 
truth, the Bible, the ministry and the ordinances of 
God into contempt. It produces hardness of heart, 
and is bound to beget irreverence. Let the man who 
handles holy things be a holy man, and a man called 
of God and not by man. The Almighty himself has 
spoken here, and demands that they who bear the 
vessels of the Lord shall be clean. When a man opens 
or handles the Word of God we want him to be a man 
of God and called of God. 

The fraternity here rushes in where angels fear to 
tread. They, in installing a man into a chaplaincy, 
have usurped the solemn, sacred work of the Holy 
Ghost. It would be well for them to inquire into the 
cause of the destruction of Dathan and Abiram and 



228 THK SANCTIFIED UtfB. 

their followers. The Bible tells us that God made the 
earth open and swallow them up, because they took 
upon themselves a sacred office and work to which 
God had not called them. 

The fraternity has captured much of our preaching 
talent. 

This appears in two respects. We have been in«^ 
formed that a great per cent, of our preachers belong 
to secret societies. This means of course a muzzled 
pulpit in many quarters. Not that our preachers are 
afraid to declare the truth, for they are true men ; but 
after joining a fraternity friendships are formed, 
kindly relations established, and it becomes difficult to 
speak of the evils they see. 

The fraternities have captured our preachers in 
another way. Some of our best talent is to-day in the 
offices of these societies as clerks and secretaries. We 
believe that when God calls a man to preach the Gos- 
pel He never proposed that he should be a salaried 
officer in such institutions of man's organization. 
And although they may say they still preach here and 
there as occasion offers, yet it is not the preaching 
that God contemplated when he called them. God 
wants a man to swing loose free from all restrictions 
and limitations, and give the whole life and all the 
energy and time to the heaven-appointed work. This 
was the way that Christ preached and that the disci- 
ples labored, and it is the way for the man called of 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 229 

God to preach to-day. If all men who have been thus 
called would so devote themselves ardently to the 
one work of saving souls, the world would soon put 
on a new appearance, and take a great leap toward the 
millennium. 

The fraternity is used by many as a substitute for 
the church. 

How often have you heard men say about Masonry 
that it was as good as the church ; that they wanted 
no other church ! But you have got to remember that 
Jesus Christ did not found it, nor did He join it, nor 
did He endorse it. Christ founded the church and told 
us to come into that. When men found an institu- 
tion and tell us that it is as good as the church, we 
think those men are in danger. We would not stay 
a moment in an institution if its teaching and spirit 
would produce a feeling of that kind among its mem- 
bers. 

Nothing has so powerfully convinced us of the 
dangerous power of these fraternities and their actual 
rivalship of the church as the publicly uttered threat 
of some church members, that they would quit the 
church if their pastor said aught against their Order. 

What a state of mind and things does this reveal. 
These men and women would cease to listen to a man 
called of God to preach, and would dissolve their con* 
nection with a Divine institution if a man should open 
his lips in warning and rebuke against a human insti- 



230 THK SANCTIFIED UFK. 

tution ! Certainly these societies have encroached 
upon the feelings and judgments of men, to thus plant 
them in antagonism to the servants and church of the 
Son of God. 

Many of these fraternities are striking at the sanc- 
tity of the Sabbath. 

We speak of a vast number of fraternities, benevo- 
lent and otherwise, that fill the land to-day. In some 
cities we could name, much of the Sabbath-breaking 
is done by societies and fraternities — in parades, pro- 
cessions, picnics and excursions. God's holy day is 
made to look like a holiday. How the heart has been 
pained as we have seen them on the Sabbath with 
fluttering flags and musical instruments, accompanied 
by the usual street crowd of men and boys, pushing 
their way to the point of destination. Many a time 
we have been kept awake on Sunday night hours, by 
the sounds of music and dancing that flowed from one 
of these fraternity halls near our home. 

Active membership in these fraternities will cer- 
tainly harm the spirituality of a Christian. 

Whom do you find comprising these fraternities? 
We grant you many excellent persons. But besides 
these there is a host of men who are unbelievers and 
haters of God and the Bible. With these you are 
thrown as companions and friends. They create an 
atmosphere ; form an influence. You breathe the 
atmosphere and feel the influence. The effect will be 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 2JI 

to lower the tone of your religious life. Why does 
the Bible say, " Be not unequally yoked together with 
unbelievers"? Why does God say, "Blessed is the 
man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly ' ' ? 
and why does he say, " Come out from among them, 
O my people ' ' ? All this is simply the recognition of 
the fact that the religious life and character is affected 
by its associations, and that there is danger here, and 
great danger, for the people of God. 

In all of the fraternities and in all the degrees of 
Masonry under the Knights Templar, the name of 
Jesus Christ is omitted. 

This to my mind is the gravest fact of all. The 
Saviour's name is not known in them. If you doubt, 
get hold of the rituals and read and seek in vain, 
listen to the public prayers. Go to the funeral serv- 
ices and listen for the name of Jesus Christ. You 
will listen in vain. Now, then, we do not care to be 
connected with any order on earth that fails to recog- 
nize the Son of God. Christ says : " He that is 
ashamed of me, of him will I be ashamed. n ff He 
that denies me before men, him will I deny." This 
applies to an individual and to an institution as well. 
We can not belong to a society or fraternity that is 
ashamed of the Lord, or that to please men will leave 
out His blessed name ; therefore have we dissolved our 
connection with all fraternities forever. With nothing 
but the kindest personal feelings to its members, with 



232 ?HE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

only kindly remembrances of individuals, yet we are 
done with the system itself. 

There is no absolute necessity for these societies. 

If you examine the social feature, history proves 
it is not the best. The best development of the social 
nature is not obtained by the separation of the sexes, 
but by their being drawn together. Club life is the 
confirmation of this statement. 

As for the benevolent feature, we say that while 
good has been done, we verily believe that if God's 
people would take the contributions and turn them 
into the channels marked out by the Bible and church, 
greater good would be done at less expense and with 
greater glory to Christ. 

We can not see the necessity of these orders. We 
got along without them for ages and ages, and we be- 
lieve we can get along without them for ages and ages 
to come. Do not forget that when Christ established 
an institution that is to take this world, He did not 
found a secret fraternity, but a church that is open as 
the heavens in its sacraments, ordinances, teachings 
and meetings. 

Let me exhort you, my brethren, to give up the 
fraternity, and instead stand by your home and that 
little woman there whom you call your wife. You 
have not a better friend on earth than that wife of 
yours. She left everything to follow you in life. 
She gave up father and mother and a comfortable 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 233 

home. You have not been to her what you should 
have been, and what you promised when she stood as 
a bride by your side and looked up in her helplessness 
to you. The light you notice is going out of her eye, 
the spring from her step, and she is getting prema- 
turely old. Go back to her and spend the evenings 
with her as you used to do. Pay her the old-time 
attentions, and before a week the light will begin to 
come back to the eye, the color steal into her cheek, 
she will fasten a bit of ribbon or a knot of flowers in 
her hair and be like her old-time self. 

The children all love you. There is no other 
group on earth that loves you like the family group. 
When sickness and trouble come, and you stagger 
home, you find it out. What do those men down the 
street with whom you talk and go so much — what do 
they care for you? So look to your family. Culti- 
tivate the home circle. 

When your wife is dead you will remember the 
loneliness of her life, produced by your attendance 
night after night upon these fraternities. When that 
little boy of yours is dead, and sleeps in his grave on 
the hillside, they will tell you then how much he 
missed you in the evenings you were gone, and how 
he talked about you and waited, hoping you would 
return before he fell asleep. 

How bitterly you will feel all this when the time 
comes. I once saw a man whose wife had died. He 



2,4 ?HB SANCTIFIED UFE. 

did not awaken to her value until then. His heart was 
broken. He had just found out that he had an angel 
for a wife. He did not know it until he heard the 
rush of her wings through the blue space to the throne 
of God, and then cried, "My God, she is gone!'* 
O, brother, come back to her, come back and spend 
the evenings at home ! What a time you can have 
for reading ; what sweet music you can have ; what 
romps with the children ; what a sweet domestic scene 
we have before us now ! And if there is any evening 
that the house of God calls you out, come and bring 
them all with you. How different this is from the 
fraternities. You can not take them with you there. 
Go rather to the place where you can hear words of 
grace from the pulpit ; go where the soul is fed ; go 
and assemble with God's people and not with worldly 
people ; and go where you will be fitted for a higher, 
nobler and eternal life. 

Stand by the church rather than any fraternity on 
the earth. Stand by the church, for it is of God. 'It 
cost the precious blood of our Saviour. It is the one 
institution that is going to survive the flames of the 
last day. When the fire burns around the whole 
world, and the flames leap from the heart of the earth 
to the tops of the mountains and swallow up all things 
in a final destruction — then every earthly institution 
shall sink into the common ruin with no hope of resur- 
rection. Fraternities and earthly orders will go down 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 235 

forever, but the church, the church of our Lord, 
purified and redeemed, shall rise above flames, and far 
above the stars, and be landed in the presence of our 
God forever. Stand by the Saviour, the Lord Jesus 
Christ. He gave His own heart's blood for you, now 
do you stand by Him? You will want Him to be 
with you in the dying hour. You will want Him to 
be your friend when the final day of judgment comes. 
Make Him your friend now and say, tl O Lord, I am 
yours from to-day in all things, under all circum- 
stances, and at all times, forever and forever. ' ' 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SIDETRACKS. 

T F there is any man whom the devil fears and hates 
above other men it is the sanctified or fire-baptized 
Christian. He knows that in him he has an unrelent- 
ing, uncompromising foe, and one who having the en- 
duement of power will do him and his kingdom more 
harm in a year than an hundred other persons put to- 
gether who know not the " mystery of the Gospel M 
and possess not the M secret of the Lord." 

The Adversary seemed to pay but little attention 
to the disciples prior to their reception of the baptism 
of the Holy Ghost. But when the holy fire fell upon 
them and they flew with shining faces, liberated ton- 
gues and irresistible lives everywhere preaching the 
Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 
then he and the dark phalanxes of hell arose and 
moved after and upon them, so that from that time 
their history, though filled with glorious victories for 
Christ, was lined with dungeons, scourgings, stonings, 
and dreadful persecutions, while some kind of martyr- 
dom terminated the career of every one. As he could 
not cool their zeal, nor make them sin, he killed them 
one by one ; Paul being beheaded, Peter crucified head 



SIDETRACKS. 237 

downward, Matthew skinned alive, James knocked 
from an high place and beat to death with fuller's clubs 
in the streets of Jerusalem, and each one ending life 
in some ghastly way conceived by Satanic hate and 
executed by human agency in league with the devil. 

To this day the great Adversary hates and dreads 
a fire-baptized man. He has no alarm and concerns 
himself but little over the multitude of Christians who 
spend most of their time in the Round House receiving 
or waiting for repairs. But let one of them obtain the 
Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire and be trans- 
formed in a flash from a condition of helplessness into 
a great spiritual locomotive full of divine life and power, 
heading for heaven, and carrying a long train of souls 
with them ; and then full of fury he plots and endeavors 
from that moment the ruin of that same useful life. 

Of course, he would prefer to destroy outright such 
foes to himself and such hinderers of his work. He 
would like to bring about a collision, or derail such a 
life and cause it to plunge down the bank to ruin. 
If he can not do this, then he tries to steal away the 
fire, the secret of the man's power. If still he does 
not succeed, his next and more successful effort is to 
sidetrack the man. This is done in one of several 
ways, and that it is done we need only look about us. 
As in file railroad world there is one main track and 
many sidetracks, so it seems in the spiritual life. We 
have been astonished at the number of different side- 



238 THK SANCTIFIED UFE. 

lines into which Satan has switched off some of the 
servants of God. In some cases the engine is " dead," 
as the engineers call it ; the fire is out, and the man 
once a power is now idle and inactive in the great 
work in which he once gladly and mightily engaged, 
and in which hundreds of his brethren are still rushing. 
In other cases, the spiritual steam is up, and the man is 
backing up and down with considerable whistling and 
ringing of bells, but he gets nowhere. Everybody can 
see he is sidetracked. 

We mention several of these tracks. One is 

SIN. 

It is noticeable that Satan in trying to get a Chris- 
tian to sin, and so end his life in failure and ruin, uses 
the two methods of Presumption and Despair upon 
him ; and they follow in the order mentioned. The 
first onset is made with the whisper, "Oh, it is a 
little thing ; no harm will come of it ; it can be 
rectified.' ' The second assault is a wail, "You are 
undone ; there is no hope for you." 

In a word, as some one has said, he presents sin to 
you at first as such a narrow stream that if you go 
across it you can easily step back. But when the sin 
has been committed, suddenly under a glare of horrific 
light the little stream is seen to have widened into a 
dark, roaring ocean that seems to be bottomless and 
shoreless. 



SIDETRACKS. 239 

The Adversary well knows the effect of this last 
impression or revelation made to the soul ; he is confi- 
dent the man will be paralyzed with despair, and 
failing to see the grace and power of the Atonement 
across that turbulent flood he has stretched before the 
spiritual vision, will sooner or later, going from sin to 
sin, finally sink into the depths of ruin. 

The devil knows well the constitution of the soul* 
He has studied the human spirit long enough to under- 
stand it. He knows that a sense of lost cleanness, lost 
virtue, lost holiness is the sharpest and most unendur- 
able of pangs ; and so if upon this natural distress he 
can graft the spirit of hopelessness his end is accom- 
plished. The man is sidetracked ! 

Alas, that such cases have been seen. Men whose 
voice and face and presence were sources of inspiration 
to God\s people, and whose deeds and life struck 
terror to the heart of hell, now sidetracked through a 
single act of wrong. 

We can never forget the profound impression once 
made on an audience by a preacher who was describ- 
ing the fall of Judas. Two steps of the ruin portrayed 
by two scenes in the man's life, and all but acted 
by the speaker, seemed to bring the congregation into 
a condition of breathless awe. One scene showed the 
devil putting the thought of the Betrayal into the heart 
of Judas. The Scripture describes this in the words, 
"The devil having put it into his heart to betray 



240 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

Him." The attitude of surprise on the part of Satan 
as Judas, one of the twelve, received and cherished 
the thought was a sermon in itself. The awful 
triumph on the devil's face, his diabolical malice, his 
withering sneer, "Why, he allows the temptation to 
remain in his heart ! He cherishes the thought ! " 
altogether made this part of the apostle's fall one of 
unspeakable dreadfulness. 

The second scene revealed the devil entering into 
Judas. The Scripture for this being found in the 
words, " Satan having entered into him." 

See the difference : In the first scene Satan is be- 
held putting the thought of evil in the man's mind, 
while in the second he brings himself into the man and 
takes possession. 

The preacher threw a book on a certain part of the 
platform, and after a minute of silent looking in that 
direction, followed the book up with himself. The 
two steps were thus incarnated before the eyes of the 
people. 

The evil thought is the forerunner of the devil ; for 
Satan knows that if a Christian will allow the evil 
thought he will in time allow the originator of the 
temptation to come in. The thought of sin is sent to 
prepare the way for the complete admission of the 
Adversary. 

So the attitude of Satan near the tempted soul, 
watching with astonishment, as well as infernal glee. 



SIDETRACKS. 241 

the entertainment of an evil thought by an apostle of 
Jesus Christ or any once devoted child of God, fairly 
awes the mind with the fact of the moral crises in men's 
history, the dreadful danger of the soul, and the gloomy 
tragedies taking place in the spiritual life. 

The ultimate possession of the man by the devil, 
and his going out in the night to commit his deed of 
darkness, is like the continued tolling of a funeral 
knell as the last spadeful of earth is thrown on the 
grave, like a curtain falling on a suicide, or night com- 
ing down upon a ghastly, lonely murder. 

A second sidetrack is readily seen in the word 

imprudence. 

There are some of God's people, who from lack of 
proper early training, have been known to do things 
innocently that nevertheless were hurtful to them. 

Then there are true Christian men so conscious of 
their own integrity before God, and faithfulness to 
men, that their very realization of a character that 
can stand tests and remain true, may create a fearless- 
ness and boldness, and perhaps at times an ignoring of 
proprieties and appearances, that if persisted in is cer- 
tain to bring lasting harm to the influence of the 
individual, whether he be layman or preacher. 

There are certain social customs and demands that 
are as unbending as the laws on the two tables of 
stone. If a man heedlessly and repeatedly breaks 



242 ?HK SANCTIFIED J«IFE. 

them, he himself will be broken. If he ignores them, 
he himself will be ignored. If he sets them aside, the 
public will set him aside. 

Some very melancholy things could be written 
under this head in the way of illustration, but we are 
confident that the warning alone of the danger is best 
and will be sufficient. Suffice it to say that numbers 
of times we have observed human lights that had been 
ignited by the Lord, and that seemed for awhile to 
attract every eye, and then began to pale little by little, 
and finally disappeared altogether. The explanation 
sometimes is that the people have seen certain things 
in the life which made them unwilling to follow such 
a standard bearer. The man was sidetracked by the 
devil through acts of imprudence. 

A third sidetrack is seen in the word 

HABITS. 

We do not refer to what some would call personal 
eccentricities or mannerisms. One of the deeply inter- 
esting features of sanctification is the way it brings 
out the peculiar gifts and individuality of the person 
receiving the blessing. The purifying of the heart, 
the empowering of the Holy Ghost, the deliverance 
from man-fear, the delightful consciousness of liberty, 
and the realization of a child-like nature, all received 
in sanctification, is the explanation and philosophy 
of the strangely marked individual manifestations so 



SIDETRACKS. 243 

noticeable in the Holiness movement. We do not wish 
to see this changed. It is a part of the excellence and 
power of the blessing. 

By M habits " we do not refer to the dress question 
and to the way some people keep, or do not keep, 
their bodies. Although it does seem to the writer 
that if any one on earth should be scrupulously 
clean in body and neat in attire it should be a man 
or woman claiming the blessing of sanctification. The 
profession of a pure heart, while carrying around 
a neglected body, clothed in untidy garments does 
not sound well, nor look well, and will not take 
well. 

Men may affect to despise these things, but sooner 
or later their own personal untidiness or uncleanliness 
will sidetrack them. Such persons themselves are the 
last to see it, but others see it. 

We recall a scene beheld by us once at Con- 
ference. It has often recurred to the memory. It 
lasted only a minute, but it had vividness for coloring 
and the clear-cut lines of chain-lightning for its edges 
and frame- work. A preacher claiming the blessing of 
holiness stopped to speak to another minister of the 
Conference who did not believe in the doctrine or ex- 
perience. The latter was puffing a cigar. The former 
sported no cigar but wore a soiled shirt. 

M Brother," said the sanctified brother, " take that 
dirty cigar out of your mouth." 



244 TH E SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

" Brother/ ■ replied the Zinzendorfian, " take that 
unclean shirt and collar off your body." 

Here was a Grant for a McPherson and a Roland 
for an Oliver. 

Let it be understood that we are not pleading for 
fashionable attire, but for physical cleanliness and 
certain proprieties of dress. We may claim to have 
reached a point of superiority to these things, but it 
will eventually end in a sidetrack. We have gifted 
men to-day in the Gospel work whose influence would 
penetrate into circles that they have not yet reached if 
they would dress less oddly and become as inconspicu- 
ous in their attire in one way as they demand of their 
congregations in another. 

He who commanded the Jews to wash frequently, 
and was careful that His ministering servants in the 
Temple should wear white and spotless linen has not 
changed His mind. 

By " habits " we refer mainly to the indulgence of 
artificial tastes and appetites, such as the use of 
tobacco in snuff-dipping, smoking and chewing. 

We do not mean to say that a man can not have 
religion if he has the tobacco habit ; yet confess to 
surprise at his saying that he enjoys religion while in 
the indulgence of what is clearly a lust of the flesh. 
It seems so clearly opposed by the teaching of the 
Bible, and so contrary to the mind, spirit and pure 
self-denying, cross-bearing life of Christ, that we have 



SIDETRACKS. 245 

often wondered how one could do this thing and call 
himself a follower of Jesus. 

It did not require sanctification to make the writer 
give up the tobacco habit, to which he had been 
devoted as a smoker for years. A good case of regen- 
eration settled the question and ended its practice for- 
ever with him. He found the surrender necessary to 
the enjoyment of that communion he craved with his 
Lord. Other regenerated people seem to have found 
a broader and easier way, but the author of this book 
could never find it. But, then, he did not want to find 
it : the narrow way of the Gospel was very attractive 
to him and eminently satisfying. 

Because of the facts stated it has been a matter of 
great wonder to us to hear of, and several times to 
see, people who claimed to be sanctified and yet used 
tobacco. The incongruity of the profession of a clean 
heart with an unclean habit at once impresses the 
reader. And when in addition we note the expensive- 
ness of the practice, the destruction in this way of 
God's money, the injury it works upon nerve, brain 
and body, and finally the utter un-Christlikeness of 
the indulgence we marvel that a man would have the 
face to stand up and claim holiness with such a back- 
ground against him as we have drawn. 

Of course they defend themselves and the habit. 
Even the heathen take up for their gods. So some 
say they use it ' ■ medicinally ' ' / And as we have gone 



*4« ^H« SANCTIFIED UFE. 

over the entire country we have been astonished to 
find how many healing virtues is possessed by tobacco 
not known by scientists and not put down in Materia 
Medica volumes. 

Others ashamed of the medicine dodge say they use 
it because they are "free." Religious liberty is the 
fig leaf this time. But the spiritually thoughtful 
see that "freedom" in these cases is nothing but 
"license." 

We once knew an old gentleman who belonged to 
our church, who claimed the blessing of sanctification 
and yet was addicted to the use of tobacco. He was 
very voluble at class-meeting and had a way of dry 
shouting. Many noticed the hollowness of the voice 
in these mechanical vociferations. And one remark- 
able fact was impressed upon us that not a soul in the 
church, not even the sanctified people, believed he had 
the blessing. So the conclusion was forced on the 
mind that if a man can use tobacco and remain sancti- 
fied, yet such is the effect of the habit on the minds of 
others that no one but himself will believe he has the 
blessing. 

We have known several other individuals who 
claimed to have a clean heart back of an unclean 
mouth, and we have noticed that without a single ex- 
ception they were without spiritual power. There 
was a notable lack of joy in the experience, freedom in 
the life, unction in the speech and power in the life. 



SIDETRACKS. 247 

We also find that men will not listen to or be 
guided by them. They claim purity with an unclean 
habit ; they say they have crucified the flesh with all 
its appetites and lusts, and yet are here pandering to 
it ; they insist they love men with a perfect love, 
while they spit enough money on the ground or puff 
enough into the air to keep bodies from starvation and 
souls from hell. They say they follow Christ and 
take Him as an example, when no one will believe for 
a moment that the Saviour would be guilty of a prac- 
tice that is unclean, expensive, hurtful to the body, 
unpleasant and sickening to innocent parties and al- 
ways to be condemned as a bad example to the young. 

The whole thing is too inconsistent. The testi- 
mony and life are too unlike and contradictory. 
Men will not believe in nor follow them, and they will 
find after awhile they are switched off. They are still 
smoking, but they are not running, or drawing any- 
thing. They are sidetracked ! 

A fourth sidetrack is, — 

The magnifying of a single feature of the Blessing 
or Work of Sanctification above the whole. 

We have all seen this mistake. The characters 
who made it ran well for awhile and then switched off 
on some issue or question connected with the grace, of 
secondary importance. 

We firmly believe in dressing to please Christ, and 
areas firmly convinced of the instantaneous healing 



248 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

power of Christ in answer to prayer and faith. We 
have not only seen it take place in others, but felt it 
in our own body. But just as steadfastly do we be* 
lieve that these questions should not be magnified 
above the greater blessing of a pure heart. It is vastly 
more important that a man be made to see the need of, 
and possess a sanctified soul than to believe in a certain 
kind of attire and obtain a healed body. The Bible 
teaches this, and men of common sense feel it to be 
true. 

Now, then, let a man instead of presenting a full- 
orbed holiness go to stressing a single feature of it 
and he is certain to be sidetracked. Men will not go 
to hear a person striking at one evil in the spiritual life 
all the time, or exalting one feature of the blessing at 
the expense of the others. 

When a body of Christians cease presenting the 
great subjects of Inbred Sin, the Baptism with the 
Holy Ghost, the Necessity of the Blessing, the Power 
of the Blessing, and go to fighting feathers, making it 
the main subject matter of each discourse and conver- 
sation, they have become sidetracked. 

There is something better than combating the symp- 
toms of a disease. The Bible strikes at the malady 
itself, and lo ! the symptoms all disappear. When the 
soul is made to see Inbred Sin, and then the beauty of 
holiness ; when it gets rid of the first and possesses 
the second, every questionable thing will be put off the 



SIDETRACKS. 249 

body and out of the life. It is not the external thrash- 
ing of the winds of March that makes the last dead 
leaves fall off the branches of the trees to which they 
have clung all winter ; but the rich, vigorous sap of 
springtime, which coursing up the tree trunk and 
flowing out into every limb, branch and twig, fairly 
pushes off and flings down upon the ground these 
yellow and untimely flutterers. So it is not so much 
pulpit thrashing and pew abuse that causes people to 
give up personal adornments, as the rich life of Christ 
stealing into every part of the soul, body and life ; and 
lo ! as the antlers drop from the head of the deer, and 
the skin is cast from the snake, everything that is 
worldly and carnal will be flung off from the individual 
who is filled with the Holy Ghost. 

We were once much impressed by a remark 
made by Amanda Smith in regard to being switched 
off from the main track of Holiness ; she said in 
substance : " You think you are all right because you 
keep moving ; but j r ou are moving on a sidetrack, and 
as certain as you live you will yet strike a ' Bumper/ 
and the end of your life-work and usefulness will 
come." 

We have only to look about us to see the truth of 
that speech. The man who allows himself to be ab- 
sorbed in some secondary matter, which becomes a pet 
subject and measure and actually eclipses greater 
truths, is certain to strike the " Bumper M at last, and 






?50 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

it will be in the shape of Public Opinion. People will 
not listen long to such a man and such a one-sided 
teaching. They will see that he is off the main track, 
and not desiring to be like him, they leave him to his 
short runs, steam whistle fussiness and to the immov- 
able Bumper at last. 
The fifth sidetrack is 

ERRONEOUS TEACHING. 

There has always been a great amount of this. 
Paul warns against it, and so does every true lover of 
God and souls. 

There is a wonderful readiness to hear among 
people. The Athenian spirit for something new is also 
still abroad. There are people with itching ears, and 
there are tongues that love to scratch such itching 
ears. We know of good people who are ready to 
swallow down everything that comes along in a doc- 
trinal way. The newer and stranger the teaching the 
more they seem to relish it. 

This being the case, there is always an open field 
for wrong and mistaken teachers. The following that 1 
seems to be easily created by any with any doctrine, 
operates as a double deception to teacher and taught. 
They both look upon it as the seal of heaven upon the 
movement, and as the earnest of the general victory 
which they feel is certain to come. 

But such men soon run their course. Error is 



SIDETRACKS. 251 

bound to be discovered at last, the following falls 
away, and the teacher is left sidetracked. 

We remember once to have read that Satan can 
deceive some people a part of the time, and others most 
of the time, but he can not deceive everybody all the 
time. 

So with the false or mistaken teacher. He can in- 
fluence some men, but not all men ; and he may affect 
many men a little while, but he can not do so all the 
while. The truth will come up at last. Error of 
heart, inconsistency of life, and extravagance of doc- 
trinal statement are certain to be found out, and the 
teacher's work is over forever. Men will not follow 
him any more. 

We have all beheld this in various religious move- 
ments, and in the Holiness cause as well. We have 
observed men whose hearts were good, but whose 
heads were not equal to their hearts, go off into fanci- 
ful interpretations of Scripture, insisting that an ex- 
perience of their own was proof of a doctrine and so 
taught, and exhorted all to follow them. But what 
they thought was a headlight, proved to be a switch- 
light, and teacher and taught found themselves at last 
off the maintrack on a sidetrack. 

A man who although sanctified has taught erron- 
eously, finds it an impossibility to get the people to 
trust him again as a teacher. They feel that as once 
before he could not tell the difference between the 



252 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

false and true, he is not to be relied on now. That 
which he calls the Star of Bethlehem may be a will-o'- 
the-wisp light and land them all sooner or later in a 
bog of error and slough of despair. 

The man who suffers himself to be betrayed into 
wrong teaching, will be a sidetracked man. It will 
be a gradual thing, for trains get on a sidetrack 
slowly, but it will be done. Reports will be taken, 
letters will pass, communities will become fearful and 
invitations will cease. By and by the Bumper is 
reached and the man is sidetracked. 

Some of this erroneous teaching is known to all 
and need not be mentioned here. We content our- 
selves in this concluding point with reference to 

THE THIRD BLESSING ERROR. 

This teaching being unscriptural is destined to go 
down ; but owing to the fact that some good people 
are very credulous, and that many excellent individ- 
uals have an imperfect knowledge of the Bible, there 
may be always some who will adhere to it as Gospel 
truth. 

The Holiness people as headed by such men as 
Wesley, Clarke and Benson, of the old world, and by 
Asbury, Inskip, and a host of others in this country ; 
and with such journals as The Witness > of Boston, 
the Standard, of Philadelphia, and the Pentecostal Her- 
ald, of Louisville ; and with multiplied thousands and 



SIDETRACKS. 253 

tens of thousands of level-headed and sound-hearted 
people in the ranks — all stand for two works of grace 
in the soul, regeneration and sanctification. The first 
preceded by repentance and faith, and the second 
followed by an endless growth in grace. Two works 
of grace, the first being pardon and life to the soul ; 
the second purity and power ; this last being wrought 
in the heart by the Son of God when He baptizes the 
believer with the Holy Ghost and fire. Peter said it 
11 purified M and Christ said it " empowered." After 
its reception the Saviour said the disciples could go 
anywhere, preaching, teaching and prevailing; and 
they did go forth to the uttermost parts of the earth 
and had victory everywhere. 

This summary above is the belief of the regular, 
Old Guard, unswitched-off Holiness people. 

The brethren who advocate the third blessing say 
that after we are sanctified and have had the Baptism 
of the Holy Ghost there is a Baptism of Fire as a 
third experience or blessing. They affirm it is to be 
sought just as the Baptism of the Holy Ghost or sanc- 
tification is obtained. That when received, the indi- 
cation of its reception is a certain fullness of love, 
knowledge and power in the soul, and a certain ting- 
ling sensation in the body. 

To the Third Blessing view we offer the following 
objections : 

First, it makes Christ to have two Baptisms for 



254 ™E SANCTIFIED UFB. 

the soul instead of one, as taught by the Word of 
God. 

The Baptism of the Holy Ghost is one thing with 
them, and the Baptism of Fire another. To the ques- 
tion, What is this Fire but the Holy Ghost ? there is 
bound to be embarrassment. The Bible says, "Our 
God is a consuming fire," and if they claim the 
11 fire " to be different from God, then are we baptized 
with something other than God, and hence less than 
God. This being the case, how can the Third Blessing 
be superior? The Bible recognizes but one spiritual 
baptism. Paul distinctly says there is " one baptism," 
and the wise scholars have long ago seen from the 
connection that he was not speaking of water- baptism. 

The words of John the Baptist teach one baptism 
by the Son of God. "I indeed baptize you with water 
. . but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
and [with] fire." The word in the brackets is not in 
the original. 

Any one studying this verse will see there is but 
one baptism meant. If there was a first baptism to be 
followed later by a second the language would have to 
be changed. 

The argument made on the two words, ' ' Holy Ghost 
and fire," if admitted, could be made to prove that there 
are two births at regeneration. It will be remembered 
by the reader that Jesus said to Nicodemas, " Except 
a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit he can not 



x 



SIDETRACKS. 255 

enter into the kingdom of God." The word in brack- 
ets is not in the original. According to the Third 
Blessing logic here are two distinct births, while we 
all know there is but one birth. There is a birth of 
the flesh and a birth of the Spirit. There is but one 
birth after the natural birth, for Jesus said, " Ye must 
be born again" not born twice more. 

Where does the water birth come in and what does 
it accomplish ? Does not any one see that it is but 
the church rite, the external sign of an inward and 
spiritual grace? The water stands for the washing of 
regeneration, just as the visible flames of fire falling 
on the disciples were announcers and declarers of the 
inward holy, sanctifying fire, with which Christ was 
then baptizing them. 

We look in vain for this Second Baptism of fire in 
the Word of God. When the disciples received the 
Baptism of the Holy Ghost tongues of fire fell and sat 
upon their heads. This is the only time that there 
was a visible flame. We never heard any one in our 
lives say that this cloven flame which moved upon 
their heads like celestial plumes did any spiritual 
work in their hearts. It was a divine external mani- 
festation and attestation. The real work was going 
on inside the disciples with the Holy Ghost as a con- 
suming fire. 

The Word of God and that scene at Pentecost 
agree in showing that Christ has one Baptism. 



256 THE SANCTIFIED UF3. 

The language of Scripture is " born of the flesh/ ' 
" born of the Spirit/' and " baptized with the Holy 
Ghost and [with] fire." One birth of the flesh, one 
birth of the Spirit, and one baptism with the Holy 
Ghost. 

A second objection to the Third Blessing view is 
that it belittles the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, or 
work of sanctification. 

Any one can see that if a third blessing called the 
Baptism of Fire is needed for the soul after sanctifica- 
tion, then the Baptism of the Holy Ghost did not 
accomplish a perfect cleansing and empowering work. 

Let us see what is the Bible and historic presenta- 
tion of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. 

As the reader knows, it is called lf Christ's Bap- 
tism," the one prophesied for ages and received by 
the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. You remem- 
ber how it fired and filled them. This same blessing 
was said by Peter the morning it came upon him, to 
be for others as well as for the apostles. It was soon 
after obtained by Samaritans, Romans and Greeks, 
Paul asking the last named the question, "Have ye 
received the Holy Ghost since ye believed 7" It was 
this that many in Wesley's time sought for and ob- 
tained, and under its inspiration and force swept the 
land for God as the disciples had done before under 
the same mighty grace. It was this that kindled John 
S. Inskip and sent him flying in every direction as a 



SIDETRACKS. 257 

burning apostle of holiness. The same blessing came 
upon the soul of the writer eight years ago, and since 
that hour he has labored unweariedly for Christ, with 
a love for God and man that nothing has been able to 
shake, cool or sour. Under this crowning grace we 
have got to know what sixty and an hundred-fold 
mean in Christian labor and fruit. 

It is this blessing that is the origin, sweetness, 
glory and power of the Holiness movement, which is 
going everywhere to-day. 

Now, as I have taken note of all these things, and 
remembered that Christ called it Enduement of Power, 
telling the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they 
received it ; and as Peter said it " purified the heart by 
faith," it is not to be wondered at that we publicly 
asked the question, ' ' What can be greater than the 
Baptism with the Holy Ghost? " We see what it did 
for the apostles, for the Wesleys, and for us to-day, 
and the question was as natural as true. 

It was answered by a third blessing brother in these 
words : ' ' I answer emphatically there is. All the ful- 
ness of the blessed Holy Trinity — the Father and the 
Son and the Holy Ghost experienced as a divine verity 
in my soul, manifesting and revealing themselves to 
my innermost consciousness as distinct personalities 
and abiding continually within me — is greater and 
more wonderful to me than simply the fulness of the 
Holy Ghost. This indwelling and bursting forth in 



258 THE SANCTIFIED UF£. 

three-fold fiery glory of the Triune God is what I 
mean by the Baptism of Fire ; and this the I^ord vouch- 
safes to me." 

According to this brother's idea, the Baptism with 
the Holy Ghost brings in the fulness of the Holy 
Ghost, and the Baptism of Fire ushers in the fulness 
of the Father and the Son. 

He gives no Scripture for this remarkable assertion. 
In fact, there is none. In absence of Scripture for this 
remarkable assertion, he makes the statement that he 
and others have the experience. 

This sounds very well, but there are many people 
who prefer to follow the Word and want a thus saith 
the Lord before they will believe there is a third work 
of grace or blessing. 

In utter refutation of his idea and to show that the 
Baptism of the Holy Ghost does bring in the fulness of 
the Trinity, we call attention to the fourteenth chapter 
of John, where the Saviour is speaking of the coming 
blessing of Pentecost or Baptism of the Holy Ghost. He 
says the Spirit is now " with you," but "shall be in 
you ' ' and to ' ' abide forever. ' ' He then adds in further 
description of the blessing that * * We (my Father and I) 
will come unto him and make our abode with him." 

Paul also settles the question that sanctification 
brings in " all the fulness of God M in his prayer for 
the Christian Church. The expressions, "strength- 
ened with might,!' "Christ dwell in your hearts/ ' 



SIDETRACKS. 259 

"rooted and grounded in love," all show what he is 
referring to, and what has been felt by every truly 
sanctified man. Any one can see that these are not 
different blessings but parts, or features, of the one 
great blessing, the crowning description of which 
the apostle gives in the next breath, * ' that ye might 
be filled with all the fulness of God. ' ' 

Here is the portrayal of the second work of grace 
by the Saviour and Paul. The former makes the Bap- 
tism with the Holy Ghost to bring in the Father and 
Son into the soul, and the latter calls it being filled 
with all the fulness of God. Can any one see the 
need of a third work of grace ? 

One birth of the Spirit, one Baptism with the Holy 
Ghost, and many blessings and refreshings from the 
presence of the Lord. This seems to be the Biblical 
order. We do not believe it can be improved. 

A third objection to the Third Blessing view is 
that it leaves Inbred Sin in the heart after sanctifica- 
tion or the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. 

The advocates of the third work in denial insist 
that they simply contend for an " empowering " in 
the Baptism of Fire. 

This position we easily overthrow by the words of 
Jesus, who said to his disciples, " Ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence," and two 
verses further on adds, ' ' Ye shall receive power after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." 



26o THE SANCTIFIED UFH. 

Here not a word is said about a Baptism of Fire, 
but power was to come from the Baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. With that "power" and "baptism" they 
went unto the uttermost parts of the earth. They 
were completely purified and qualified for Christian 
service, and needed no third work of grace. 

Now, then, to say that after the Baptism of the 
Holy Ghost there is needed a Baptism of Fire, is to 
teach that the nature or principle of sin is left in the 
heart. For if, as the Bible says, the Baptism of the 
Holy Ghost empowers, what is the Baptism of Fire to 
do, but to purify ? 

The very insistence upon the necessity of a Bap- 
tism of Fire for the soul after sanctification shows 
remaining uncleanness. Fire destroys and cleanses. 
This is its peculiar power and work. Coming down 
upon the sanctified soul then, to do anything it must 
find something to destroy and something to cleanse, 
and what could that be but sin ? 

So here by the Third Blessing view we are taught 
by the faithfulness of Bible figures that the Baptism 
of the Holy Ghost did not remove inbred sin, and that 
a sanctified man is not sanctified. 

Sanctify means to make pure, to make holy. But 
if we have to seek a Baptism of Fire subsequent to our 
sanctification then something is left in us that is un- 
clean and to be destroyed, and so we are not sanctified 
or pure at all. How the Bible upsets all these wrong 



SIDETRACKS. 26l 

notions and false reasoning. Peter, in speaking of 
the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, said that by it the 
11 hearts were purified.' ■ Certainly there is no room 
for Inbred Sin in the soul after that. 

It is evident to the thoughtful that to insist upon a 
Baptism of Fire to be sought for by sanctified people 
is by an unavoidable Scriptural logic to compel such 
people to admit they have in them Inbred Sin. 

It is also remarkable that such reasoners have un- 
consciously joined hands with Meyer, Murray, Moody, 
and all the Northfield School, who teach that sanctifi- 
cation or the Baptism with the Holy Ghost is nothing 
but an anointing for service of the regenerated soul, 
or, truly speaking, a Greasing of the Old Man. 

God does not want the Old Man anointed. It is 
not oil that he needs but fire ! He needs to be killed 
not anointed. 

Such superficial views of the work of Christ, such a 
belittling of Christ's Baptism with the Holy Ghost 
can not but do harm and does do harm. 

A fourth objection to the Third Blessing view is 
that it mars what we call the dual symmetry of the 
Bible. 

The double work of salvation is clearly taught 
in Scripture. Pardon and Purity are held up all 
through the Book. Peace is connected with Pardon, 
and Power with Purity. The Apostle Paul writes to 
Titus about the double work of grace in the words, 



262 THE SANCTIFIED Um 

1 ' He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the 

renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us 

abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." We 

see it shadowed forth in the two sin-offerings, the two 

rooms in the Tabernacle and the two angels in the 

Holy of Holies. We hear it sung in the grand old 

hymn: 

11 Be of sin the double cure, 

Save from wrath and make me pure." 
According to the Third Blessing view there should 
be another clause to the verse in Titus, a third sin- 
offering, a third room in the Tabernacle, three angels 
in the Holiest, while the hymn should read, 
" Be of sin the Triple cure." 

A fifth objection to the Third Blessing teaching is 
that it is unscriptural. 

We can not find anywhere in the Bible where 
people sought and found the Baptism of Fire as a third 
blessing. 

The only time it is mentioned it is seen to be iden- 
tical with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as it fell on 
the disciples. 

In Samaria the converts of Philip, under the teach- 
ing of Peter and John, received the Baptism of the 
Holy Ghost. 

Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, obtained the 
Baptism of the Holy Ghost while Peter was preaching. 
There is no mention of a third blessing after this. 



SIDETRACKS. 263 

When Paul came to Ephesus and found certain 
disciples he did not say, " Have ye received the Bap- 
tism of Fire which ushers in the fulness of the Father 
and the Son? " but his words were, " Have ye received 
the Holy Ghost since ye believed? " 

No mention is made here or elsewhere about a dis- 
tinct Baptism of Fire, because the Baptism of the Holy 
Ghost is a Baptism of Fire. He who gets the one 
obtains the other ; these two are never separated. 
Just as the sea of glass is permeated with fire, so the 
Baptism of the Holy Ghost is one of fire. Whoever 
obtains Christ's Baptism with the Holy Ghost gets 
the fire. Hallelujah ! when it came upon us eight 
years ago, it was fire ! We felt it from head to foot, 
and while it burned in the soul we felt it tingling 
to the very extremities of the body. We have never 
felt the need of a third blessing or work of grace, and 
looking into the Bible we can find none promised. 
Christ's Baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire we 
want and need, and all any one needs. Hallelujah! 
it can be obtained. 

A sixth objection to the Third Blessing view is 
that when accepted it starts a line of other works that 
are simply endless. 

We have observed that when men depart from 
strict Scripture teaching, they do not rest in the new 
error, but go on to others. Our readers who have read 
church history will remember that when the Cath- 



f>\ THE SANCTIFIED UF£. 

olic Church added a third sacrament to the two taught 
by the Bible, it was not long before they had seven I 
So will it be here. 

We know a lady who became dissatisfied with her 
sanctified life, and sought what she called the Baptism 
of I/>ve. She ran on that for a few months and then 
claimed to have received the Bisptism of Power. After 
that she obtained two other kind of Baptisms, where- 
upon we prayed in our heart that she might receive 
the Baptism of Common Sense, but up to the latest 
accounts she has not yet received it. 

In a town in one of our Southern States, a gentle- 
man who has gone off into the Third Blessing 
movement, has published in a paper the epochs 
of his Christian life. The almanac feature is re- 
markable : 

Converted — 1870. 

Sanctified — 1876. 

Received the Holy Ghost — 1880. 

Baptized with Fire — 1897. 

He had two other divine works on the list which 
we can not recall. It is evident that he is not done. 
He will go on multiplying and inventing as Fancy 
suggests, or some wandering teacher should present to 
the mind, until he himself shall finally became bewil- 
dered and know not where he is. 

Oh, how we need not only the sincerity of Jesus 
Christ but His simplicity. 



SIDETRACKS. 265 

To the question, How can we account for good 
people falling into such an error ? our reply is, — 

First, some who never had been sanctified, re- 
ceived it at last and called it the Baptism of Fire or the 
third blessing. They had taken the blessing by faith 
but had not received the witness. They were living 
clean and quiet lives and thought they were sanctified, 
when they were not. In this condition being stirred 
up by faithful preaching they sought ardently for what 
was called the M Fire," and this time complying with 
every condition and taking no denial, down came the 
mighty Baptism with the Holy Ghost, the holy fire 
flashed all through their spirits, and they thought 
they had received the third blessing, when for the first 
time they had obtained the second blessing, or were 
sanctified. 

Another explanation is that some sanctified people 
lose their power, the fire goes down, and the blessing 
leaks out. We have known such, who instead of con- 
fessing their loss and seeking to be renewed, would 
come to the altar for the Baptism of Fire or the Third 
Blessing. What they needed to do was to make a 
wholesome confession to the audience and go down on 
their knees as a backslider from holiness. What they 
needed to ask for was not the third blessing, but the 
Second Blessing restored. Not to get new fire, but 
the old fire back in their souls. 

One thing is certain that according to the words of 



266 THE SANCTIFIED UF3. 

Christ the Baptism with the Holy Ghost brings " en- 
duement of power," according to Peter the heart is 
4 ' purified, " and according to IyUke, who saw it, the 
11 fire " comes at the same instant with the Baptism of 
the Holy Ghost. 

If sanctification or the Baptism with the Holy 
Ghost is not " power* ' and "purity" and "fire," it 
is nothing, and the Word of God is not to be relied 
on, and the experience of multiplied thousands of truly 
sanctified people living in all ages and countries are 
not to be regarded a moment. 

Thank God for sanctification, for the Baptism with 
the Holy Ghost and with fire, all three in one. He 
who gets one, gets all. For him there is no third, 
fourth or fifth work of grace, but an everlasting 
growth in grace and a constant advancement in the 
love of God and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

If the reader never felt the fire that comes with 
the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, let him never rest un- 
til he finds it. If he once had it and lost it, may he 
never stop unil he recovers the holy flame. 

Happy the man who has it, happy the man who 
keeps it, and blessed is the man who knows how to 

spread it. 

"Refining Fire go through my heart, 
Illuminate my soul, 
Scatter thy life through every part 
And sanctify the whole." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE GREAT REMEDY. 

'"THE astonishing fact we are called upon continually 
to notice, is the ignorance of men concerning the 
omnipotence of grace in the Atonement : the almighty 
power of the Blood of Christ to save, recover, restore, 
renew, purify and uplift from the lowest depths to the 
greatest heights. 

Christians who have felt the pardoning power, and 
believers who have experienced the sanctifying energy 
of the Blood certainly ought to realize what is meant 
by the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. And so 
some do have Christ-honoring views, and some have 
still nobler conceptions of the power of Jesus to save ; 
but there are multitudes calling themselves Christians 
who do not seem to dream of the riches of grace in 
the Son of God, while the very strongest and most 
advanced fctill need to have their eyes opened with 
their faith limitation views, to see the wonders of sal- 
vation covered up in the words, * ' He is able to do 
exceeding abundantly for us above all we mm ask or 
think"; and again, "If ye abide in me and my 
words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it 
shall be done unto you." And still again two pray- 

a6j 



368 THE SANCTIFIED UFK. 

ers for God's people, one in Colossians and the other 
in Rphesians, that seem to be horizonless, shoreless 
and bottomless, so far as grace is concerned in the 
human soul. 

Most Christians have stationed the Blood at one or 
two points along the path of life. It is needed to get 
into the kingdom. Then it is needed to be made pure. 
Usually it is looked back upon, or forward to, as 
the man stands between pardon and holiness. 

The thought of it rushing like a cleansing stream 
all along through life, ever powerful, and always in 
reach of the touch of faith, does not seem to enter 
many minds. 

It is thought to be a periodic blessing, spasmodic 
rather than continuous. It is supposed to help in 
some cases, but not in all ; when the great truth pre- 
sented us in the Word is that the Blood is sufficient 
for all men, for all degrees of sin, for every kind of 
fall, and all the time. It is omnipotent saving grace 
perpetually applied. 

There is no doubt in the mind of the author, that 
%/ the church thus far has seen but little of the power of 
God in spiritual realms. We stand in awe over the 
sight of cyclones, tornadoes, floods and fires in Nature. 
Here is God's power in material things. But He has 
also omnipotence in the spiritual kingdom. It is not 
exercised by Him and beheld by us because we limit 
Him in that realm by unbelief. Nothing hinders God 



J 



THE GREAT REMEDY. 269 

from working in Nature, but He can do nothing com 
mensurate in the realm of spirit when unbelief reigns. 
The Gospel tells us that Christ did no mighty works 
in certain towns because of their unbelief. 

So thus far we have seen God's love, God's mercy 
and God's wisdom, but God's power is to be beheld 
mainty in the future, perhaps not before the Millen- 
nium. We have fancied we have seen it already, but 
how little to what He can do, and will do, and that 
the human race will yet see and feel. 

We have been accustomed to quote the scenes at 
the Day of Pentecost, and the great triumphs of apos- 
tolic times, as though the acme and climax of divine 
grace and power had been reached then ; when we S 
think there is no question but that which took place 
in those days was but a small sample of what is to be ; 
a blossom from a garden, a sheaf waved in front of a 
vast coming harvest. 

We marvel over meetings to-day where several 
hundred souls are saved, but where are the eyes of 
the reader not to see a time is prophesied as coming 
when a nation shall be born in a day ! Christ will be 
seen riding at the head of the White Horse Calvary of 
Heaven, the work will be cut short in righteousness, 
and in the midst of the rush and tread and shock of 
armies in spiritual combat, a voice will be heard say- 
ing, "It is done — the kingdoms of this world hav* 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. 1 ' 



$70 ?HB SANCTIFIED UF3. 

The day of God's power will have come, and it 
comes because a full Gospel has been proclaimed. Men 
see the reach and perfect saving power of the Blood, faith 
springs up and God, who has long been waiting for 
that faith, and who can not work without it is exer- 
cised in Him, now arises to show what He can do. 

And, oh, what will Christ not do, when every 
shackle and trammel and cord of man's unbelief that 
has bound Him is gone and He is free to save all, and 
to the uttermost round about the world ! 

How he has been belittled before men and made to 
appear as a helpless Saviour, when He was willing, 
able and ready to do exceeding abundantly for us all, 
the instant we came in faith unto Him. 

Cities that rejected Him, towns which locked their 
gates, individuals who barred their hearts and lives 
against Him, and so created the idea of man's om- 
nipotence and God's helplessness, will all go down 
together before Him in the latter day glory. 

As the love of God and the grace of Christ are 
unfolded, and faith springs up, multitudes of the 
spiritually lame, sick, withered and impotent, the 
worst of sinners, the most hopeless of backsliders, 
chronic cases who have through many years been 
waiting for the moving of the water of life, will all 
rush forward, and nations will be born in a day. 

What will be thought of in such times, of one hun» 
ired and twenty sanctified and three thousand con 



the; great remedy, 271 

verted, when a whole kingdom will turn to Christ 
between sunrise and sunset, and churches will be 
blazing with holy fire in every direction ? 

The cause of this stupendous victory will be seen 
to be in the acquired knowledge of the power of 
the Blood. When the completeness and perfectness of 
the antidote for sin is seen, the people will flock to the 
House of God like doves to the windows and be saved. 

We are all familiar with the passage in which we 
are told that Christ is ' ' made unto us wisdom and 
righteousness and sanctification and redemption." 
Concerning the first three we know something and yet 
far from all. As for the last word, " Redemption," 
the writer sees the gleam of unrisen suns, the glory 
of unborn days, and in a word, such tremendous 
possibilities and prophecies of grace through the atone- 
ment, that he would be afraid to disclose all that comes 
to his mind lest he be thought to be beside himself. 

Redemption is a great word, and the work or works 
it stands for is vaster than many Christians imagine. 
Christ has come to destroy the works of the devil. He 
is to restore what Satan destroyed. He is to set up 
that which he cast down, and make right that which 
Satan made wrong. 

He is to substitute order, harmony, melody, purity, 
happiness, life and salvation, for the discord, misrule, 
misery, sin and death set up by the Adversary. Just 
as we have seen a mother go through rooms that had 



VJ2 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

been upset and disarranged by a set of mad-cap 
children, and quietly and patiently straighten and 
regulate from one end of the house to the other, until 
there was no sign of what the mischievous young ones 
had done ; so is Christ to pass through the world and 
remove every trace of disorder, disturbance and con- 
fusion, all the evil and wrong, all the sin and sorrow 
introduced into it by the great common enemy of God 
and man, and make it look like a new world. He 
started the work two thousand years ago, and is still 
at it. He has already done much, but is to do more. 
It is the firm belief of the writer that when Christ 
completes His work this planet will look like Paradise 
restored. With sin, sorrow, sickness and death gone 
this world will no longer be called the devil's province 
or territory, but will fairly blaze and shine as it 
sweeps through the skies as the ante-chamber of 
Heaven. 

With the knowledge of the power of the Blood, of 
what is in Redemption, the universal deliverance and 
perfect victory of salvation is certain to come. 

Up to this time the great mass of Christians do not 
dream of the lengths, breadths, depths and heights in 
the plan of salvation for them. Few indeed are 
living the ever joyful, always victorious life that is 
our privilege through the grace and power of Christ. 
Perhaps no one, no matter how advanced in Christian 
experience, has seen and felt all that may be seen and 



THE GREAT REMEDY. 273 

felt, before the Lord's work is completed in us in 
this life. 

The pity is that while God has placed an almighty 
recovering grace by the side of every man on earth in 
the Blood of His Son, yet men ignorant of the fact, or 
the measure of this salvation, go on in their sorrowful, 
staggering, faltering and even sinful way, until the 
end of life itself. 

The Blood that is to save the world completely in 
the millennium, can save it now. The Blood that is to 
bring a nation to God in a day can bring the worst man 
to righteousness and keep him there safe and sound 
after he has been brought back. 

It cleanseth from all sin. This is God's word, and 
no one can file exceptions after such an utterance with- 
out contradicting God. All sin means all sin. 

And it cleanses now. It does not take time to 
cleanse. Time is no Saviour. There is nothing in 
the flight of hours and days to make the soul pure. 
The Blood alone can do this. 

There is the strangest disposition upon the part of 
men to look elsewhere for cleansing and renewing 
rather than to the riven side of Christ. They exalt 
the flow of tears, the bitterness of their own repent- 
ance, the humiliation they entail on themselves, the 
promises they make, etc., etc., when not one of them 
can cleanse the soul. 

These men have an idea that if they sin, it is wrong 



274 *HE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

and presumptuous to expect an instantaneous restora- 
tion. They think that a certain length of time spent 
in groaning, weeping and beating the breast will 
be very acceptable to God, and so after a while, after a 
sufficient time spent in doing penance, and humbling 
themselves before Him for the transgression, He for 
the sake of all these things as well as for Christ's sake 
will have mercy. 

Great is the mistake. It does not take time to 
restore us. The Blood does it, and nothing but the 
Blood. Now if only the Blood can cleanse us from sin, 
where and how can we bring in Time as a factor of 
grace? The Blood cleanses from all sin, says the 
Bible, and it cleanses now. 

As men take in the graciousness of these words, 
1 ■ all sin ' ' and ' ' now, • ' it is going to work a revolution 
in the church and individual life. Thank God, it has 
already accomplished wonders with some, but this is 
the mere beginning. 

It would certainly be surprising if God would 
originate a scheme of salvation that made no provision 
after the reception of pardon and holiness for possible 
lapses and falls. What an oversight it would have 
been on the part of divine wisdom, and in what terror 
God's people would be kept by the thought that if 
they transgressed from the w r ay of holiness there was 
no method provided for bringing them back. 

But God has made no such mistake. The Blood 



THE GREAT REMEDY. 275 

which translates from the realms of darkness into the 
kingdom of light, and which makes us children of 
God and obtains the purification of the heart ; that 
same Blood can recover if sin arises in the heart or the 
feet have gone astray. And it can do it effectually. 

When an artillery wagon is constructed, we find 
that instead of four wheels, it is sent out into the field 
with five ; the fifth wheel being tied on to the back 
axle tree, as a provision for the exigences and casual- 
ties of the battle. When a cannon ball sweeps away 
one of the four wheels the driver without a moment's 
hesitation leaps from his horse, cuts the fifth wheel 
loose, claps it on the axle, drops in the lynch-pin, 
springs into the saddle, pops his whip, and away he 
thunders with the rectified wagon. 

As we note this piece of human foresight, we say 
will God have less? Will He send us out to front 
danger, where the shot and shell, the arrows and mis- 
siles of Satan are flying, where we may be struck 
painfully or mortally at any time, and yet have no 
plan of recovery for us ? If this is so, then God has 
shown less thought and care in the plan of salvation, 
than the human workman did in the construction of 
an artillery wagon. 

But He has not overlooked us. The Blood is the 
fifth wheel that will help us out of any and every 
spiritual difficulty. The instant we are shot by Satan, 
God's plan and provision for us is to fly to the Blood, 



276 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

have it instantly applied, be as immediately restored 
and go on our way rejoicing. All this was fore- 
shadowed in the Trespass Offering, which, though of 
the same Blood as the Sin Offering, yet was a pro- 
vision for the sins of ignorance, and we can easily see, 
for those transgressions that might come into the 
life of the believer, and which would not necessitate 
the same kind of approach as is seen in the first fright- 
ened and guilt-stained waiting upon God. 

The Trespass Offering, while the same Blood, was 
an offering peculiarly for the child of God. The 
Israelite handled it, and not the alien and stranger. 

This, of course, is not intended to teach that there 
is a necessity for sinning, but means that in case the 
servant of God should transgress he need not and 
should not despair. 

The plain statement of the New Testament is that 
M The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from 
all sin." This cleansing is in the present tense, and 
in a perpetual present tense. 

The Blood, says the Bible, cleanses from all sin 
and cleanses from all sin now. Why, then, should 
we look to priests, pilgrimages, beads, prayers, tears 
and penances? Why indulge in hair-pulHngs, breast- 
beatings and bitter self-accusations? None of these 
things cleanse from sin. They do not cleanse now 
and never can purify. All of them have failed and 
will continue to fait It is the Blood alone that 



THE GREAT REMEDY. 277 

cleanses from all sin. When will we get people to 
believe that blessed fact, and see them leaping, jump- 
ing and praising God through the temple ? 

If the heavy hearts, silent lips, drooping souls, 
troubled consciences and sin-defiled people all around 
us, could just get this wondrous truth into their minds 
and hearts, that the Blood cleanses from all sin now, 
they would be transformed in the flash of a moment 
into bright-faced, joyful-lipped, sunny-hearted Chris- 
tians, whose very gladness would attract the multitude 
to Christ and whose lives would tell on the world for 
good not only for time but forever. 

We have repeatedly said that if we were to sin, we 
would refuse to go into condemnation. And while 
bitterly regretting the occurrence, and repenting hav- 
ing been betrayed into the wrong thought, word or 
act, yet why allow hours and days of gloom to be 
spent in profitless repining and self-condemnation, 
that can never purify or restore. 

Knowing that it is the Blood which cleanses we 
would throw everything on the altar, cry out to God : 
" O Lord, I am sorry that I sinned ; I confess, re- 
nounce and repent the deed. But Jesus died and paid 
it all ; all the debt I owe. I give up all to Thee, I 
put all on the altar. I look to Christ and believe what 
the Bible says, that the Blood of Christ cleanses from 
all sin now. I believe it, I believe it Glory to God 
I believe it' ' And so I would continue to believe and 



278 THE SANCTIFIED UFB. 

plead with God, and lift up the Blood, and expect the 
fire until suddenly I felt the heart-warming soul- 
purifying touch, and heard the voice of the Spirit wit- 
nessing to the fact that all was well, 

I would utter these words so frequently, so rapidly 
and so persistently that the devil himself would be 
confounded. He should have no opportunity of 
thrusting in an adverse and contradictory statement. 
I would repeat the words, holding them aloft as one 
would wave a banner, and stand on the Word looking 
up, believing and repeating, and repeating and be- 
lieving until the fire fell and I could say again: "I 
feel the glory in my soul." 

Naturalists tell of a small animal called the ichneu- 
mon which is not over two or three inches in size, but 
can defeat and destroy a venomous snake that is over a 
yard in length, and many times larger than itself. 
But it is noticeable that the ichneumon never fights 
over two or three feet away from a plant whose leaves 
contain the antidote for the snake bite. When the 
reptile plants its poisonous fangs in the little creature, 
the ichneumon at once drags itself to the bush, chews 
a leaf, is instantly restored, and returns refreshed and 
renewed to the conflict. After a little the ichneumon 
is bitten again, and feeling death creeping along the 
veins, flies at once to the shrub, takes another mouth- 
ful of the restoring leaf and returns with a new lease 
of strength and life to the battle. It is just a question 



THE GREAT REMEDY. 279 

of time. The snake grows weaker and weaker, while 
the ichneumon is continually renewed. So after awhile 
the larger animal goes down in the remarkable contest, 
and turning bottom side up, gives up the ghost, while 
the ichneumon, flushed, triumphant and jubilant, 
waves its right forepaw in the air (figuratively speak- 
ing), and almost shouts hallelujah. 

So in the soul's great contest with Satan and sin, 
the disparity is great. Hopeless indeed would be the 
soul if left alone in the warfare against the great fallen 
Archangel who has led whole nations astray, and for 
six thousand years has become infernally wise in the 
ways of drawing men into transgression and perdition. 
But happily for us the tree of life with healing in the 
leaves grows close by each heart. The Blood of Christ, 
which purges the poison of hell from the soul, and 
makes the spirit clean white and beautiful, is flowing 
always in touch of the wounded heart. When smitten 
by Satan, and hurt through the imagination, desire, 
speech or action, we should instantly touch the blessed 
Christ who is always near, and that touch will instantly 
renew and restore. As many, says the Scripture, as 
touched Him were made perfectly whole. And so back 
to the fight we go ; and if wounded again instantly 
look to Jesus and touch Him by another act of faith, 
and so keep on touching until perfect victory is won, 
the enemy driven from the field, and we are triumphant 
in the possession of the knowledge and ability how to 



280 THE SANCTIFIED LIFE. 

resist Satan and conquer sin, and thrilled with the ex- 
perience of constant cleansing, constant peace, and 
constant victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

There are wearied and discouraged hearts all over 
the land, that ought not to be cast down, and would 
not be so if they could see the recovering, restoring 
power of the Blood. 

Some have failed in the Christian life in various 
ways, and think now that there is not a single hope or 
prospect left. The grace of God has been abused, the 
talents entrusted them have been buried or squandered, 
and they can see nothing left but moral bankruptcy or 
life failure. 

And so it would be if there was only one member to 
the spiritual firm. But we read that God is a co-worker 
in the matter of salvation. And He is the Great One 
of the life partnership. We may be upset, and the 
I/)rd remain unmoved. 

Recently we read of a wealthy, benevolent gentle- 
man who conceived quite an interest in a ragged urchin 
of New York. He fount? that the boy was anxious to 
do something to make a living, but lacked the small 
capital of a few dollars to begin and carry on the 
humble business as a bootblack. The gentleman pur- 
chased the necessary brushes and polishing material, 
and saw the boy commence business on a street corner 
with a radiant face. These two constituted the firm, 
the gentleman furnishing the material and the boy the 



THK GREAT REMEDY. 28 1 

hand-work. The lad did well, and by the third day 
had over a dollar in silver in his pockets over and 
above expenses. On the fourth morning, however, 
the gentleman missed the junior member of the firm 
from his corner, and later in the day saw him entering 
his office with a doleful countenance. 

11 Why, what is the matter? " he asked. 

" It is all up. We are ruined ! " replied the boy. 

"What is up? Who is ruined? I don't under- 
stand you, ' p said the gentleman. 

"Oh," sighed the boy, "I mean you and I are 
done for — the firm 's bursted ! ' ■ 

Little by little the senior member of the collapsed 
firm drew from the junior member his narration of 
distress. It seems that he the night before had at- 
tended some kind of Public Relief gathering where, 
under the influence of the songs, speeches and touch 
ing incidents related, the lad had responded to the 
appeal by emptying his pockets and donating his 
entire stock. Next morning as he felt his empty 
pockets, and surveyed his unoccupied street corner a 
revulsion of feeling and a sense of despair had settled 
down upon them. As he had expressed it, "The firm 
was bursted ' ' and all hope was gone. 

With great difficulty the gentleman concealed his 
amusement, and said to the junior member that while 
the break seemed to be very serious in his eyes, still 
it was not irremediable and he thought he could act 



282 run SANCTIFIED UMt. 

him up and start him again. And so lie did, to the 
great delight of the boy. 

We of this earth are the junior members of the 
Great Firm of Salvation. As we falter, reel, and 
even break down here and there in the religious life, 
great is our gloom and despair. We say all is over ; 
there is no more hope ; the Firm is bursted. 

Doubtless our despondency and gloomy speeches 
sound as absurd and are as amusing to angels and 
those who live in the Heavenly Courts as the boy's 
lamentation was to the millionaire. But they feel 
sorry for us in spite of their smiles, and would kindly 
stoop over us and say, M Not so, you are not ruined. 
The Blood is left ; mercy and grace are left ; and 
Christ is left. You may be undone, but He is not. 
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day and for- 
ever." 

In a word, the junior member may be hurt, while 
the Senior Member is untouched and still has all power 
in heaven and in earth. He can set us up again, and 
cause us to resume business at the Old Stand, or fur- 
ther up Hallelujah Avenue in a more eligible situa- 
tion, if necessary. Thank God for the renewing, 
recovering, restoring Blood of Christ. 

We have found people strangely hindered and 
paralyzed with some sorrowful memory of the past. 
It was some disobedience to God, some failure in duty, 
perhaps some sin. Now, whenever they would arise 



THE GREAT REMEDY. 283 

and begiii to do exploits for God, Satan brings back 
the remembrance and down they go in gloom, as they 
begin to donbt the power of the Blood to atone for 
and cover the past. They do not seem to realize that 
this very doubt is a limitation of salvation, a belittling 
of redemption, and another failure to see that the per- 
fect remedy for all mistakes, failures and sins is in 
the Blood. 

Surely if the Blood of Jesus can save a vile sinner, 
it can recover a wandering Christian. If it can cover 
a multitude of transgressions in the life of the uncon- 
verted, it can certainly atone for a few missteps or 
wrongs in the history of a child of God. Its virtue 
and power does not end in pardon, or even in holiness, 
but is for all people at all times and in all conditions. 

We read in the old Testament that when God was 
preparing to bring His people out of Egypt on the 
night that the Death Angel was slaying the first born 
everywhere, He commanded that blood should be 
sprinkled on the door-posts and lintels of every house. 
His promise was : 

11 When I see the Blood I will pass over ! M 

What mercy and riches of grace are in this verse ! 
What a world of comfort to every sin-sick heart and 
doubting soul ! 

Splash the Blood over your soul. Apply it by faith 
to the door-posts of your life. Sprinkle it on the past, 
present and future. Put it thick on every act of the 



284 - THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

past that you regret, but which you can not now 
undo. Thank God, we can do this. Now is it done ? 
Is the Blood lifted up and relied on ? Is it your only 
plea ? If so, hear what God says and be glad forever, 
11 When I see the Blood I will pass over/' 

What more can we ask for? And who can touch 
or harm one who is under the Blood ? Pardon, purity, 
recovery, safety and Heaven are all in that Word. 

In a great storm on our rocky coasts a ship was 
foundering. All the crew were soon swept into death 
save one sailor, who was seen clinging to the shrouds. 
The sea was so high that no boat could go to him. 
He was doomed, and he saw it as well as those on the 
shore. A trumpet was handed to a preacher to shout 
something to the man who would so soon be in Eter- 
nity. He took it in his hand with the mental ques- 
tion : " What shall I say ? " Shall it be one of the 
points made in his sermon that Sunday morning? 
Meantime the man had only a few minutes to live. 
Under a happy inspiration the preacher, placing the 
trumpet to his mouth, cried out : 

11 1/>ok to Jesus, man ! " 

The words were literally hurled through the 
stormy blast, and reached the exhausted sailor. In 
another moment came back the words : 

11 Aye, aye, sir." 

And then they heard him singing ; and they caught 
tba words : 



THE GREAT REMEDY. 285 

"Jesus, Lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly, 
While the nearer waters roll, 
While the tempest still is high. 99 

He had reached the fifth liae, 

" Hide me, O my Saviour, hide," 

when they saw him loosen his hold on the wave-swept 
rigging and drop into the sea. 

We have often thought of the scene, and feel to- 
day that if we had but one minute of time and one 
sentence to speak to each man on earth, that minute 
should be filled in every case with the sentence — 
41 Look to Jesus. " 

It is the only thing we can do, and it is the best 
thing we can do, whether we be sinners, backsliders 
or faithful servants of God. 

If we look to Jesus we will be saved ; and If we 
continue looking to Jesus we will run patiently the 
race set before us, and will finally sit down with Christ 
on the right hand of the majesty on high. 

Thank God for the Great Remedy, the cleansing 
keeping Blood, the omnipotence of grace in Jesus 
Christ. Let no one despair with such a complete and 
all-powerful salvation encompassing the life and spring- 
ing up in the heart. No matter what may be the sin, 
Christ can forgive it ; nor how great the mistake, He 
can overrule it ; nor how dark the night, He can bring 
us out of it ; nor how disastrous the defeat, He can 



286 THE SANCTIFIED UFE. 

make victory perch again upon the trailing banner. 
He is a mighty Saviour. His name is Jesus, and He 
has come to save His people, and He is doing it. We 
read that He is doing so, we see it, and above all we 
feel it. With such a Redeemer, whose compassions 
fail not, and whose power is infinite, we should all 
press on with glad hearts, being fully persuaded that 
He is able to keep that which we have committed unto 
Him, and will present us faultless at last before the 
Throne with exceeding joy. Amen and Amen. 



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